NON-ANTIBIOTIC TREATMENT FOR PEDIATRIC OUTPATIENTS WITH COMMON COLD INHIBITS THE EMERGENCE OF DRUG RESISTANT PNEUMOCOCCI

[Original Article]

NON-ANTIBIOTIC TREATMENT FOR PEDIATRIC OUTPATIENTS WITH
COMMON COLD INHIBITS THE EMERGENCE OF
DRUG RESISTANT PNEUMOCOCCI

AYUMI MATSUMOTO¹⁾, AYA TAKEYAMA²⁾, KOICHI HASHIMOTO¹⁾,
MASAKI ITO¹⁾, MASAHIKO KATAYOSE²⁾, KAZUO KATO³⁾, YUKIHIKO KAWASAKI¹⁾
and MITSUAKI HOSOYA¹⁾

¹⁾Department of Pediatrics, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan, ²⁾Department of Pediatrics, Soma General Hospital, Fukushima, Japan, ³⁾Department of Pediatrics, Fujita General Hospital, Fukushima, Japan

(Received January 16, 2009, accepted March 26, 2010)

Abstract: The occurrence of drug resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) is very high in Japan. Unnecessary use of antibiotics had been thought to cause this problem but previous studies had not clearly showed that the decreasing rate of antibiotic use had been related to the reduction of the prevalence of resistant strains. In this study, we tried to prove that non-antibiotic treatment for common cold would reduce the antibiotic resistant S. pneumoniae in nasopharynx in children. Forty-five children with the common cold were randomly selected from pediatric patients who had taken antibiotics within the past three months. We collected nasopharyngeal swabs from all of the participants and once again after a period of 2 to 3 months without using any antibiotics. Twenty-four of these patients had the S. pneumoniae strains isolated. Then these strains were undergone a susceptibility test and drug-resistant gene detection. The susceptibility test reveled that patients with penicillin-resistant strains decreased from 17 to 7 (p<0.01). The test also reveled that the decreased number of patients had strains that were resistant to cefditren. The gene detection revealed that none of the patients acquired a higher resistance to penicillin. Our study suggests that the treatment without antibiotics reduces the drug-resistant S. pneumoniae. Controlled antibiotic use in children might prevent children from carrying the antibiotic resistant S. pneumoniae.

Key words: Steptococcus pneumoniae, antibiotics, common cold, child

松本歩美，武山　彩，橋本浩一，伊藤正樹，片寄雅彦，加藤一夫，川崎幸彦，細矢光亮

Corresponding author:Ayumi Matsumoto
E-mail:b-walk@fmu.ac.jp
http://fmu.ac.jp/home/lib/F-igaku/
http://www.sasappa.co.jp/online/