Antibiotic susceptibility rates of invasive pneumococci before and after the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccination in Germany

Continuous nationwide surveillance of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) was conducted in Germany. A total of 22,208 isolates from invasive pneumococcal disease were collected between July 1, 1992 and June 30, 2013. The present study was conducted to analyze changes in antimicrobial susceptibility and pneumococcal vaccine coverage after the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccination in Germany.Most of the isolates originated from adults ≥16 years (82.5%), while 17.5% were obtained from children <16 years. Penicillin resistance was observed in 7.2% of meningitis cases both among children and adults during the entire study period. In the post-PCV13 period, the resistance rate was 11.3% in children and 10.0% in adults, which is higher than in the pre-PCV7 and post-PCV7 periods. In the non-meningitis group, an overall penicillin nonsusceptibility rate (intermediate resistance and resistance) of 0.5% was detected both among children and adults. Nonsusceptibility rates among children were 6.3% (pre-PCV7), 7.6% (post-PCV7) and 9.0% (post-PCV13). The corresponding nonsusceptibility rates among adults were 4.4%, 6.0% and 7.9%, respectively. Concerning cefotaxime, in meningitis cases 0.8% of all isolates were intermediate and 0.5% resistant among children, while among adults, 0.9% were intermediate and 0.2% resistant. In non meningitis cases, cefotaxime nonsusceptibility rates were 0.5% in children and 0.3% in adults. Macrolide nonsusceptibility rates were lower in the post-PCV13 period (children 8.2%; adults 8.8%) than in the post-PCV7 period (children 17.3%; adults 13.0%) and the pre-PCV7 period (children 24.8%; adults 13.3%). In the pre-PCV7 period, macrolide resistance was mainly caused by M-phenotype clones carrying the mefA gene. In the post-PCV7/13 period, ermB (MLSb-phenotype) was the dominant resistance marker. Overall nonsusceptibility rates were 5.5% for clindamycin (intermediate 0.3%, resistant 5.2%), 0.7% for levofloxacin (intermediate 0.4%, resistant 0.3%), 8.5% for tetracycline (intermediate 0.6%, resistant 7.9%) and 11.0% for trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (SXT) (intermediate 5.7%, resistant 5.3%).In summary, childhood pneumococcal conjugate vaccination has had a strong effect on the pneumococcal population in Germany, both among vaccinated children as well as among non-vaccinated children and adults. Serotypes included in the pneumococcal conjugate vaccines have strongly diminished, while some non-vaccine serotypes have gained importance, particularly with respect to antibiotic resistance. However, concerning antibiotic non-susceptibility the most outstanding change over the years is the decline in macrolide resistance, especially among children.