Novel Type of Streptococcus pneumoniae Causing Multidrug-Resistant Acute Otitis Media in Children

After our recent discovery of a Streptococcus pneumoniae 19A “superbug” (Legacy strain) that is resistant to all Food and Drug Administration–approved antimicrobial drugs for treatment of acute otitis media (AOM) in children, other S. pneumoniae isolates from children with AOM were characterized by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Among 40 isolates studied, 16 (40%) were serotype 19A, and 9 (23%) were resistant to multiple antimicrobial drugs. Two others had unreported sequence types (STs) that expressed the 19A capsule, and 8 (88%) of the 9 multidrug-resistant strains were serotype 19A, including the Legacy strain with the new ST-2722. In genetic relatedness, ST-2722 belonged to a cluster of reported strains of S. pneumoniae in which all strains had 6 of the same alleles as ST-156. The multidrug-resistant strains related to ST-156 expressed different capsular serotypes: 9V, 14, 11A, 15C, and 19F.