Place of Streptococcus pyogenes in the throat infections and overview of its susceptibility to antibiotics

Objective. - In this study we report the prevalence of the throat infections to Streptococcus pyogenes in child and adult in Morocco, and the current antimicrobial susceptibility of the aminopenicillins and erythromycin. Patients and methods. - A prospective surveillance study was made from March 2006 to February 2007 in four primary health care in Rabat and Sale cities. Six hundred and ninety-seven patients (494 children and 203 adults) were the object of samplings by throat cotton swab probe, for researching the group A Streptococcus (GAS). The patients were those proposed by their doctors for the treatment of throat infections. The antimicrobial susceptibility was realized by two methods: the disc-diffusion method on Mueller-Hinton agar plates and MICs were determined by E-test. The antibiotics tested were the penicillin G, the amoxicillin and the erythromycin. Results. - S. pyogenes was identified in 65 cases (9.3%): 45 strains in children (9.1%) and 20 strains in adults (9.9%). Two peaks of throat infections to S. pyogenes were recorded in children aged 12 to 15 years and in adults between 36 and 39 years old. All strains were susceptible to penicillin G and amoxicillin, One strain was resistant to erythromycin with a MIC greater than 256 mu g/mL. (c) 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS.