ABSTRACT
Background: Streptococcus pneumonia (S.pneumoniae) is the main cause of acquired pneumonia in the community along with otitis media, sinusitis, septicemia and meningitis. Objectives: The study determined antimicrobial resistance and serotype distribution of Streptococcus pneumonia isolates from hospitalized children at Hai Phong Children's Hospital, Vietnam. Subjects and method: From June 2006 to September 2007, 80 pneumococccal isolates were tested for susceptibility to the 13 antibiotics and 84 pneumococcal isolates were serotyped. Results:Seventy-five percent of strains showed multi-drug resistance. Ninety percent of strains showed resistance to penicillin (48% intermediate and 42% fully resistant). In addition, 100% of isolates were resistant to cotrimoxazole, 74% of isolates were resistant to cephalexin; 71 % of isolates were resistant to erythroomycin and 58% were resistant to cefuroxxime. Almost all the isolates were susceptible to amoxicillin, cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, ceefepime, ofloxacin and 100% of isolates were susceptible to vancomycin. Among the 84 serotypes, 82% were included in the 23 valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine including: 19F (30%), 23F (21 %), 14 (13%) and 6B (13%). Six other serotypes (13, 15C, 18, 11A, 15B and 6A) accounted for 12% of strains and 9 (11%) strains were untypeable. Conclusion: Pneumococcal antibiotics is spreading most rapidly among children in Vietnam, especially strains typs 19F and 23 F. Concerted efforts are necessary to prevent it spreading.\r\n", u'\r\n', u'