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In vitro susceptibility of urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis strains in a country with high azithromycin consumption rate

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Abstract

Although Chlamydia trachomatis resistance is not of great concern due to its excellent sensitivity to the currently recommended first-line antibiotics (azithromycin and doxycycline), clinical treatment failures have been reported and some of them were linked to laboratory proved resistance. The aim of this study was to determine in vitro susceptibility to azithromycin and doxycycline for 24 urogenital chlamydial strains isolated in Croatia—a country with the highest consumption of azithromycin in Europe and with very high antibiotic prescription rates. Fourteen isolates from cervical swabs, nine from male urethral swabs, and one isolate from expressed prostatic secretion were tested in McCoy cell culture system. All strains were susceptible to azithromycin and doxycycline with minimal inhibitory concentration for azithromycin and doxycycline ranging from 0.064 to 0.125 μg/mL and 0.016 to 0.064 μg/mL, and minimal chlamydicidal concentration ranging from 0.064 to 2.0 μg/mL and 0.032 to 1.0 μg/mL, respectively. Since we still lack information on whether C. trachomatis is evolving in vivo in response to antibiotic selection pressure, this kind of surveillance for resistance is essential in detecting shifts in antimicrobial susceptibilities.

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Acknowledgments

This work is part of the project “Investigation of the etiology, epidemiology, diagnostics and treatment of patients with prostatitis syndrome” (P.I. Professor V. Skerk) funded by The Croatian National Foundation for Science, Higher Education and Technological Development (grant no. 04/30). Authors thank Vesna Seperic and Mirela Josipovic for the technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chlamydia Unit, Department of Virology, Microbiology Service, Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Rockefellerova 12, Zagreb, 10000, Croatia

    Suncanica Ljubin-Sternak, Tatjana Vilibic-Cavlek, Gordana Mlinaric-Galinovic & Mario Sviben

  2. School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Suncanica Ljubin-Sternak, Tatjana Vilibic-Cavlek, Gordana Mlinaric-Galinovic & Mario Sviben

  3. Polyclinic for Medical Microbiology and Parasitology “Dr Zora Profozic”, Zagreb, Croatia

    Tomislav Mestrovic

  4. Clinical Department for Urinary Tract Infections, University Hospital for Infectious Diseases “Dr Fran Mihaljevic”, Zagreb, Croatia

    Alemka Markotic & Visnja Skerk

Authors
  1. Suncanica Ljubin-Sternak
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  2. Tomislav Mestrovic
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  3. Tatjana Vilibic-Cavlek
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  4. Gordana Mlinaric-Galinovic
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  5. Mario Sviben
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  6. Alemka Markotic
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  7. Visnja Skerk
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Correspondence to Suncanica Ljubin-Sternak.

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Ljubin-Sternak, S., Mestrovic, T., Vilibic-Cavlek, T. et al. In vitro susceptibility of urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis strains in a country with high azithromycin consumption rate. Folia Microbiol 58, 361–365 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-012-0218-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-012-0218-2

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