High prevalence of carriage of antibiotic-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae in children in Kampala Uganda.

There are few data on antibiotic-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae in Uganda. A total of 191 healthy children in Kampala, Uganda were screened for nasopharyngeal carriage of S. pneumoniae; 118 (62%) of the children were carriers. Antimicrobial susceptibility and serotype of 115 strains was determined. Ninety-six (83.5%) of the isolates were of intermediate resistance to penicillin and 19 (16.5%) were susceptible. All strains were susceptible to cefotaxime. The rates of resistance to other drugs were trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole (83.5%), tetracycline (28.7%) and chloramphenicol (10.4%). All strains were susceptible to rifampicin, erythromycin and clindamycin. Serogroups 6, 9, 14, 19 and 23 accounted for 80% of the isolates. These data show that the rate of carriage of antibiotic-resistant pneumococci by children is high in Kampala, Uganda.