Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of Streptococcus pyogenes in children with bacterial pharyngitis referred to Bahrami Hospital emergency in Tehran (2010)

This descriptive study was conducted on 183 children with bacterial pharyngitis aged 5-15 years old referred to Bahrami hospital emergency in 2010. The aim of this study was to determine the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of streptococcus pyogenes. Group A β-hemolytic streptococci colonies were isolated from the patients and penicillin and erythromycin susceptibility tests were carried out by disk diffusion method. Of 45 group A β-hemolytic streptococcus-positive children، 24 (53. 3%) were female and 21 (46. 7%) were male with mean age of 8. 02±2. 19 years. Most of them were admitted in winter (53. 03%) and in spring (31. 1%)، respectively. Only 3 patients (6. 7%) were resistant to penicillin and 8 patients (17. 8%) were resistant to erythromycin which shows that penicillin can be prescribed in the treatment of bacterial pharyngitis without need to wait for antibiogram result.