Open AccessPeripartum Transmission of Penicillin-Resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae
Author(s) -
L. Clifford McDonald,
Kristina Bryant,
James W. Snyder
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of clinical microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.349
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1070-633X
pISSN - 0095-1137
DOI - 10.1128/jcm.41.5.2258-2260.2003
Subject(s) - streptococcus pneumoniae , neonatal sepsis , sepsis , penicillin , ampicillin , bacteremia , medicine , pneumococcal infections , microbiology and biotechnology , streptococcus , streptococcus agalactiae , gestation , pregnancy , antibiotics , biology , bacteria , genetics
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a rarely recognized cause of neonatal sepsis. We present a recent case of S. pneumoniae bacteremia acquired on the first day of life in a neonate born at 30 weeks of gestation to a mother without prenatal care who had prolonged rupture of the membranes and received intravenous ampicillin prior to delivery. The isolate was resistant to penicillin, with a MIC of the drug of 4 microg/ml. The child responded to a 7-day course of intravenous vancomycin. S. pneumoniae was recovered from the vagina of the mother on a swab culture collected prior to delivery, and isolates from mother and child were confirmed to be identical on the basis of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Although neonatal sepsis due to the peripartum transmission of S. pneumoniae is rare, this case highlights the concern that increasing efforts to prevent group B streptococcus neonatal disease may lead to an increase in neonatal infections due to resistant organisms.