Quantitative analysis of Vietnamese Streptococcus victims shows drug resistance

Streptococcus strains in southern Vietnam are becoming more resistant to multi-drug treatments, according to quantitative analysis published in BMC Infectious Diseases.

The open-access journal specialises in research relating to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of transmissible illnesses.

In the quantitative analysis, scientists from Oxford University's Vietnam-based clinical research unit, Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University, the Ho Chi Minh Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the University of Amsterdam's Academic Medical Centre collaborated on an 11-year study.

They used pulse field gel electrophoresis to determine the localisation of the tetracycline resistance gene tet(L) in Streptococcus suis strains obtained from human patients during the period from 1997 to 2008.

"We demonstrated that multi-drug resistance in S suis, causing disease in humans in southern Vietnam, has increased over the 11-year period studied," the researchers write.

This significant increase in resistance was measured over the full period in terms of the strains' resistance to tetracycline and to chloramphenicol, as well as to multiple drug therapies.