Spread of the Streptococcus pneumoniae Taiwan19F-14 clone among children in Greece

Serotype 19F pneumococci were a leading cause of infections among children in Athens, Greece during 2001-2006. In total, 143 19F isolates were typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and 38 isolates representing the main PFGE types were also characterised by multilocus sequence typing. A diversity of distinct strains belonging to sequence types 236, 1035, 274, 172 and 319 were identified, but multidrug-resistant isolates related to the Taiwan19F-14 clone (ST236) constituted 76.9% of the isolates. Spread of the Taiwan19F-14 clone explains, in part, the high incidence of antibiotic resistance observed among pneumococci reported recently from Athens.