Rev Panam Salud Publica/Pan Am J Public Health 25(4), 2009
337
Circulation of Streptococcus pneumoniae
clone Colombia5 ST289 in nine Latin
American countries
Carolina Firacative,1 Jaime Moreno,1 Patricia Rosales,2 Aurora Maldonado,3
Jacqueline Sánchez,4 Carmen Pesantes,5 Sergio López,6
Markela de Quinzada,7 Gustavo Chamorro,8 Sara Morales,9
Enza Spadola,10 Jean-Marc Gabastou,11 and Elizabeth Castañeda1
Objective. To determine genetic relatedness of clone Colombia5 ST289 with invasive Strep-
tococcus pneumoniae serotype 5 isolates recovered in nine Latin American countries.
Methods. Forty-four invasive S. pneumoniae serotype 5 isolates recovered from children
under 5 years of age in Bolivia, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela were studied. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns of DNA
treated with SmaI restriction enzyme were classified using Tenover’s criteria and analyzed
with the Fingerprinting II program to determine their genetic relatedness with the Colombian
clone.
Results. All isolates had a genetic similarity of 78.5% or more with the Colombian clone.
Thirteen electrophoretic subtypes derived of pattern A were identified, and five of them (A5,
A6, A8, A13, A27) comprised 61.4% of the isolates.
Conclusions. Clone Colombia5 ST289 is disseminated in Latin America. This is important
because S. pneumoniae serotype 5 frequently causes invasive disease in the region and is as-
sociated with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole resistance.
Streptococcus pneumoniae; epidemiology, molecular; Latin America; electrophoresis,
gel, pulsed-field; surveillance, Latin America.
ABSTRACT
Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the
leading pathogens causing pneumonia,
otitis media, bacteremia, and meningi-
tis worldwide (1). In developing coun-
tries, approximately two million children
younger than 5 years of age die each
year due to acute respiratory infections,
which are the main cause of death in this
age group (2). Based on structural differ-
ences of capsular polysaccharides,