Abstract
Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 6E has recently been described, but its long-term epidemiology is not well known. From 1981–2013, 704 serogroup 6 clinical isolates were obtained in Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, Spain. All invasive and one in four non-invasive isolates were included. Overall, 75, 97, 51 and 45 serotypes 6A, 6B, 6C and 6E isolates, respectively, were detected. No serotype 6D isolates were identified. The prevalence of serotypes 6E and 6B, but not that of serotypes 6A and 6C, declined after the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Serotype 6E isolates showed the highest resistance rate. Most serotype 6E isolates were ST90.
Highlights
Among the nearly 100 different pneumococcal serotypes currently described, Streptococcus pneumoniae serogroup 6 serotypes have been extensively studied, especially serotype 6B [1]
When we compared two consecutive 12-year periods, before (1990–2001) and after (2002– 2013) the introduction of the heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) in our region, we found that the prevalence of invasive infections caused by serotypes 6E (9/57 versus 0/60) and 6B (34/57 versus 18/60) but not that of serotype 6A (11/57 versus 20/60) declined (p 0.001)
Due to the high rates of antibiotic resistance among serotype 6E isolates, if prevalence studies of serotype 6E are done in selected multiresistant isolates, a higher rate of 6E isolates will be expected
Summary
Among the nearly 100 different pneumococcal serotypes currently described, Streptococcus pneumoniae serogroup 6 serotypes have been extensively studied, especially serotype 6B [1]. When pneumococcal capsular genes were described in 2006 [2], new serotypes (6C, 6D [3, 4] and 6E [5]) were added to the classical serotypes (6A and 6B) in serogroup 6. Because serotype 6E has been described so recently, there is scarce information on its clinical burden and epidemiological trends over long periods. The main objective of this work was to describe the clinical and microbiological characteristics of serotype 6E pneumococci in our region during a 33-year period
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