Ann Clin Microbiol.  2013 Dec;16(4):182-187. 10.5145/ACM.2013.16.4.182.

Antimicrobial Resistance and Molecular Epidemiologic Characteristics of Neisseria gonorrhoeae Isolated from Korea in 2013

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Research Institute of Bacterial Resistance, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
  • 2Department of Laboratory Medicine, Kwandong University College of Medicine, Incheon, Korea. hmlee.labmed@gmail.com

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Antimicrobial resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae has become a serious problem worldwide, and ceftriaxone non-susceptible isolates have been recently reported from Japan and Europe. In this study, we evaluated the antimicrobial susceptibilities and molecular epidemiological characteristics of isolates from Korea in 2013.
METHODS
Sixty strains of N. gonorrhoeae were collected from Korean patients and prostitutes. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by the agar dilution and disk diffusion methods. N. gonorrhoeae multi-antigen sequence typing (NG-MAST) was performed in order to determine the molecular epidemiologic relatedness.
RESULTS
All of isolates were non-susceptible to penicillin G and tetracycline, and the rate of ciprofloxacin-resistant isolates was 95% in 2013. The MICs of ceftriaxone were within the susceptible range for all isolates, but one isolate non-susceptible to cefixime (MIC=0.5 microg/mL) was encountered. The isolates with decreased susceptibility (MIC< or =0.12 microg/mL) to cefixime or ceftriaxone accounted for 10% and 14% of the isolates tested, respectively. In NG-MAST analysis, 40 different STs were encountered among the 59 isolates. Isolates that belonged to tbpB110 showed higher cefixime and ceftriaxone MICs (0.12-0.5 microg/mL) as well as cefixime resistance.
CONCLUSION
Most of the N. gonorrhoeae isolates showed susceptibility to spectinomycin and cephalosporins. Due to the emergence of isolates that are non-susceptible to cefixime and the prevalence of isolates with the tbpB110 allele belonging to ST1407, which cause cefixime and ceftriaxone treatment failure in successful global clones of N. gonorrhoeae, a continuous nationwide antimicrobial surveillance program is required to monitor the emergence of cephalosporin resistance in N. gonorrhoeae.

Keyword

Microbial sensitivity tests; Neisseria gonorrhoeae; Neisseria gonorrhoeae multiantigen sequence typing

Cited by  2 articles

Increasing Incidence of High-Level Tetracycline-Resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae due to Clonal Spread and Foreign Import
Hyukmin Lee, Hyunsoo Kim, Hyo Jin Kim, Young Hee Suh, Dongeun Yong, Seok Hoon Jeong, Kyungwon Lee, Yunsop Chong
Yonsei Med J. 2016;57(2):350-357.    doi: 10.3349/ymj.2016.57.2.350.

Disseminated Gonococcal Infection Presenting as Bacteremia and Liver Abscesses in a Healthy Adult
Min Hye Lee, Jongkyu Byun, Myounghwa Jung, John Jeongseok Yang, Ki-Ho Park, Soo-youn Moon, Hee Joo Lee, Mi Suk Lee
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