Letters to the Editor Macrolide Resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae Strains Collected in the Far East of Russia from 2000 to 2002

The last decade was noted for the emergence and prevalence of antimicrobial agent-resistant pneumococci. Strains resistant to macrolides, chloramphenicol, and tetracycline have been registered in a number of countries (1). In some regions, resistance to macrolides prevails over the resistance to penicillin. Macrolide resistance has been reported to be high among pneumococci in Asian countries (4), but the distribution of these macrolide resistance determinants is not known. The incidence of erythromycin-resistant strains among Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates in such a large territory as the Far East of Russia was approximately 5% until the early 1990s, but nowadays erythromycin-resistant strains have been greatly increasing (5). Because macrolides are frequently used as first-line treatment for infections of lower respiratory tract in the Far East of Russia and the use of these agents has been associated with an increase in resistance rates, it was extremely important to investigate macrolide resistance rate in our area. The main aim of our investigation was to estimate the macrolide-resistance rate in isolates of S. pneumoniae .I n our investigation, we had studied macrolide resistance of S. pneumoniae strains derived from young patients with communityacquired pneumonia at the Far East of Russia. A total of 134 nonduplicate isolates of S. pneumoniae collected from 2000 to 2002 in the Far East were evaluated with the common NCCLSrecommended standards (2).