Trends in antibiotic resistance of respiratory tract pathogens in children in Geneva, Switzerland

Abstract

During the 16 years studied, the antibiotic resistance of respiratory tract pathogens steadily and significantly increased in children, especially S. pneumoniae. This situation in Geneva is similar to neighbouring France rather than to the rest of Switzerland. A permanent surveillance of microbial susceptibility to antibiotics is essential and a limitation of antibiotic prescription together with information of the judicious use may impede the actual resistance trend.

Social-economic factors and irrational antibiotic use as reasons for antibiotic resistance of bacteria causing common childhood infections in primary healthcare

“…In these patients, the use of antibiotics is often not justified, except in cases of bacterial super-infection [13,57]. The most common causes of acute bacterial infections of the upper respiratory tract in children are Streptococcus pneumoniae, β-haemolytic Streptococci and H. influenzae [36,52].…”

“…According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 0.7 to 1 million children under 5 years of age die of pneumococcal infections every year around the world, mostly in underdeveloped and developing countries [34,36,52,74]. The most usually prescribed antibiotics for the upper respiratory tract infections were penicillins, macrolides, co-trimoxazole and, in less extent, new-generation antibiotics [5,16,27,34,36,68,77]. The first data on resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae to penicillin and tetracycline came from Australia in 1967 [4].…”

Western Europe

“…Rates in Belgium are a little bit higher (4%) but in other regions can be much higher, up to 38% [49][50][51]. In most instances, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid is still effective.…”

Trends in antibiotic resistance among respiratory tract pathogens in children in two regions near France, a high level resistance country

“…The report of Jaecklin et al [2] that appears in this issue shows increasing resistance of respiratory pathogens in children in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1989 to 2004. The susceptibility of S. pneumoniae to penicillin and to erythromycin has decreased from 98% to 58% and from 97% to 63%, respectively.…”

“…These two reports of Arri et al [1] and Jaecklin et al [2] are of great value since the regional development of resistance of S. pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis to several antibiotics is described for over 10 and 15 years, respectively. They show once more that the frequency of resistance is very different from one region to another even if they are both bordering a high level resistance country and relatively close to each other (less than 300 km).…”