TY - JOUR AU - Jenkins, Stephen AU - Farrell, David T1 - Increase in Pneumococcus Macrolide Resistance, United States T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2009 VL - 15 IS - 8 SP - 1260 SN - 1080-6059 AB - During year 6 (2005–2006) of the Prospective Resistant Organism Tracking and Epidemiology for the Ketolide Telithromycin surveillance study, 6,747 Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates were collected at 119 centers. The susceptibility of these isolates to macrolides was compared with data from previous years. Macrolide resistance increased significantly in year 6 (35.3%) from the stable rate of ≈30% for the previous 3 years (p<0.0001). Macrolide resistance increased in all regions of the United States and for all patient age groups. Rates were highest in the south and for children 0–2 years of age. Lower-level efflux [mef(A)]–mediated macrolide resistance decreased in prevalence to ≈50%, and highly resistant [erm(B) + mef(A)] strains increased to 25%. Telithromycin and levofloxacin susceptibility rates were >99% and >98%, respectively, irrespective of genotype. Pneumococcal macrolide resistance in the United States showed its first significant increase since 2000. High-level macrolide resistance is also increasing. KW - Streptococcus pneumoniae KW - streptococci KW - macrolides KW - surveillance KW - PROTEKT US KW - respiratory infections KW - bacteria KW - antimicrobial resistance KW - United States KW - research DO - 10.3201/eid1508.081187 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/8/08-1187_article ER - End of Reference