Prudent corticosteroid use, vigilant microbiological surveillance and appropriate antibiotics coverage are the key to successful treatment.

Between August 1996 and July 1997, 550 clinically significant Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates were collected from 14 geographically separate laboratories in Taiwan. These isolates were serotyped and MICs were determined by agar dilution. Among serotypes covered by the 23-valent vaccine, types 19F, 19A, 23F, 23A and 6B dominated, comprising 255 isolates; among non-vaccine serotypes, types 35, 39, 34, 13 and 31 dominated, comprising 118 isolates. Of the 550 isolates, 310 (56.4%) were resistant to penicillin G (MIC 0. 12 mg/L), 238 (43.3%) with intermediate resistance (MIC 0.12-1 mg/L) and 72 (13.1%) with high-level resistance (MIC 2 mg/L). Most non-susceptible pneumococci were of serotypes 19F and 23F; non-susceptible isolates of these serotypes were distributed across all of Taiwan. Fourteen other antibiotics were tested; 83% of the isolates were resistant to tetracycline, 78% to azithromycin, 74% to erythromycin, 54% to clindamycin and 23% to chloramphenicol. Thus, macrolides can no longer be used as first line agents to treat pneumococcal infections in Taiwan. Multi-resistance (isolates resistant to three or more chemically unrelated antibiotics) was found in each serotype or group, but mostly in types 19F and 23F. The emergence of such strains complicates antibiotic selection, but both types are covered by the 23-valent vaccine, as were 82% of the isolates from blood and eight of the nine from cerebrospinal fluid. Good antibiotic control and appropriate use of this vaccine may improve the current problem in Taiwan, especially for the elderly.

The Tigecycline In Vitro Surveillance in Taiwan (TIST) study, initiated in 2006, is a nationwide surveillance program designed to longitudinally monitor the in vitro activity of tigecycline against commonly encountered drug-resistant bacteria. This study compared the in vitro activity of tigecycline against 3,014 isolates of clinically important drug-resistant bacteria using the standard broth microdilution and disk diffusion methods. Species studied included methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA; n ‫؍‬ 759), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE; n ‫؍‬ 191), extended-spectrum ␤-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli (n ‫؍‬ 602), ESBL-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (n ‫؍‬ 736), and Acinetobacter baumannii (n ‫؍‬ 726) that had been collected from patients treated between 2008 and 2010 at 20 hospitals in Taiwan. MICs and inhibition zone diameters were interpreted according to the currently recommended U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) criteria and the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) criteria. The MIC 90 values of tigecycline against MRSA, VRE, ESBL-producing E. coli, ESBL-producing K. pneumoniae, and A. baumannii were 0.5, 0.125, 0.5, 2, and 8 g/ml, respectively. The total error rates between the two methods using the FDA criteria were high: 38.4% for ESBL-producing K. pneumoniae and 33.8% for A. baumannii. Using the EUCAST criteria, the total error rate was also high (54.6%) for A. baumannii isolates. The total error rates between these two methods were <5% for MRSA, VRE, and ESBL-producing E. coli. For routine susceptibility testing of ESBL-producing K. pneumoniae and A. baumannii against tigecycline, the broth microdilution method should be used because of the poor correlation of results between these two methods.

The TigecyclineIn VitroSurveillance in Taiwan (TIST) study, a nationwide, prospective surveillance during 2006 to 2010, collected a total of 7,793 clinical isolates, including methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA) (n= 1,834), penicillin-resistantStreptococcus pneumoniae(PRSP) (n= 423), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) (n= 219), extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producingEscherichia coli(n= 1,141), ESBL-producingKlebsiella pneumoniae(n= 1,330),Acinetobacter baumannii(n= 1,645), andStenotrophomonas maltophilia(n= 903), from different specimens from 20 different hospitals in Taiwan. MICs of tigecycline were determined following the criteria of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST-2011). Among drug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens, all of the PRSP isolates were susceptible to tigecycline (MIC90, 0.03 μg/ml), and only one MRSA isolate (MIC90, 0.5 μg/ml) and three VRE isolates (MIC90, 0.125 μg/ml) were nonsusceptible to tigecycline. Among the Gram-negative bacteria, the tigecycline susceptibility rates were 99.65% for ESBL-producingE. coli(MIC90, 0.5 μg/ml) and 96.32% for ESBL-producingK. pneumoniae(MIC90, 2 μg/ml) when interpreted by FDA criteria but were 98.7% and 85.8%, respectively, when interpreted by EUCAST-2011 criteria. The susceptibility rate forA. baumannii(MIC90, 4 μg/ml) decreased from 80.9% in 2006 to 55.3% in 2009 but increased to 73.4% in 2010. A bimodal MIC distribution was found among carbapenem-susceptibleA. baumanniiisolates, and a unimodal MIC distribution was found among carbapenem-nonsusceptibleA. baumanniiisolates. In Taiwan, tigecycline continues to have excellentin vitroactivity against several major clinically important drug-resistant bacteria, with the exception ofA. baumannii.

The scoring system for SARS can provide a rapid and reliable clinical decision to help emergency physicians detect cases of SARS more accurately in the endemic area.

This study reports positive responses to intensive antimicrobial control measures among health professionals within a Taiwanese medical center. Following the implementation of the intensive control program, both prescriptions and consumption levels of parenteral antimicrobials were reduced without compromising the clinical outcomes of patients, while the susceptibility patterns of bacterial organisms mostly remained stable. Long-term control of parenteral antimicrobials under such a program may well produce significant benefits for inpatients through the overall rationalization of antimicrobial usage, leading to potential reductions in both the incidence of adverse effects and the burden of resistant organisms. A method of incorporating this intensive control program into a computerized prescription order system is currently under construction.

Although nonmeningeal S. pneumoniae isolates remained susceptible to penicillin, the proportion of isolates with a penicillin MIC of 0.12-1.0 μg/mL or cefotaxime MIC of 1.0 μg/mL increased during the past decade in Taiwan. The ever-increasing resistance of S. pneumoniae has a great impact on the treatment of meningitis.

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