Laboratory surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and multidrug resistance among Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated in the Kinki region of Japan, 2001–2015

The 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) was introduced among children in Japan in 2010. There are no long-term multicenter surveillance studies of antimicrobial resistance in S. pneumoniae before and after the introduction of PCV7. Therefore, we examined chronological trends in antimicrobial resistance among 4534 strains of S. pneumoniae isolated from both children and adults in the Kinki region of Japan during 2001–2015. High-level penicillin and third-generation cephalosporin resistance in S. pneumoniae increased among both children and adults during the period before the introduction of PCV7 (2001–2010). Besides penicillin and cephalosporin, pneumococcal carbapenem and macrolide resistance increased among children. The rate of resistance to these antibiotics was higher among children than among adults. The introduction of PCV7 decreased the rate of non-susceptibility to β-lactam antibiotics and the rate of multidrug resistant S. pneumoniae among children, but not among adults.