• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.34-37
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• 2006

Beta-hemolytic streptococci (BHS) are frequently isolated pathogens in clinical microbiology laboratories. Among them, Group C, G and F streptococci infrequently cause respiratory infections, but they often invade other sites. Patients with underlying diseases are prone to be infected by the organisms and some of them can be fatal. Therefore, combination tests of serological and biochemical tests are needed to correct the identification of non-A, B streptococci because to various species belong to this species. The aim of this study was to investigate the isolation rates of strains and distribution of serogroup C, G and F streptococci at Wonju Hospital during the period of 2003-2004. 133 clinical isolates of group C, G and F streptococci were examined. Of them, 13 (9.8%) were group C, 41 (31.8%) were group F, 79 (59.4%) were group G. The prevalent isolation of the strains by serogroup were: group C, Streptococcus constellatus (38.5%); group F, Streptococcus anginosus (56.1%), Streptococcus constellatus (26.9%); group G, Streptococcus anginosus (54.4%), Streptococcus dysgalatiae subsp. equisimilis (26.5%). Overall, the most frequently isolated BHS was Streptococcus anginosus (51.2%).

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.226-230
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• 2009

We evaluated the efficacy of $\beta$-hemolytic Streptococcus(S.) iniae vaccine on cultured olive flounder. Three hundred flounders(weight $50{\pm}5$ g) were obtained from two farm at Wando and Taean in the southern and western coast of Korea at May and June 2007, respectively. Twenty of flounders moved in 0.5 tons aquaria in land-marine tank system of National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service. Seawater was transported from the sea of Inchon in western Korea, and water temperature maintained to $22^{\circ}C$ and $25^{\circ}C$ during the vaccination and challenge test, respectively. We used the formalin-inactivated $\beta$-hemolytic S. iniae vaccine produced by domestic manufacturers. The vaccine was intraperitoneally administered to fish. The vaccinated and control group were challenged with intraperitoneal injection by virulent S. iniae SI-36 isolates with $5.0{\times}10^8$ CFU/fish at 3 weeks after vaccination. We evaluated the vaccine efficacy by calculating numbers of dead fish, and observing of clinical signs, exterior and gross lesions, and examining bacteria isolation and identification. Thirty-four(25.2%) of 135 control and vaccinated group fish were dead with serious anemia, abdominal extension, and hernia of intestine during 3 weeks post vaccination. We isolated Neoheterobothrium hirame from the buccal cavity and Edwardsiella tarda from kidney of dead and diseased fish. When infected fish with these agents were challenged with S. iniae SI-36 isolates, the cumulative mortality of control and vaccinated group were 86.7, and 46.7%, respectively. However, significant differences(p<0.05) were observed on cumulative mortality between control(20.0%) and vaccinated group(95.0%) at second trials with 40 healthy, and relative percent survival(RPS) was 78.0%. We confirmed that the efficacy of $\beta$-hemolytic S. iniae vaccine on olive flounder were impacted by health condition such as bacterial and parasitic diseases.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.85-88
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• 2006

Perianal streptococcal dermatitis is a bright red, sharply demarcated, perianal rash that is caused by group A beta-hemolytic streptococci. It primarily occurs in children between six months and 10 years of age and is often misdiagnosed and treated inappropriately. We report a case of Perianal streptococcal dermatitis in a 13-months-old female patient. A culture of the perianal area grew group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus. The patient was given systemic antibiotics and topical applications of mupirocin, and a dramatic improvement was noted.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.149-156
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• 2001

After the fact that obsessive-compulsive symptoms or tic symptoms are common in Sydenham's chorea which is a sequale of rheumatic fever produced by group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus was reported, the association between group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus and a subgroup of obsessivecompulsive disorder(OCD) or tic disorder has been attentioned. This subgroup shared a unique clinical course, characterized by an abrupt onset of symptoms and/or dramatic exacerbations. And this subgroup was distinguished by pre-pubertal onset of symptoms, neurological abnormalities(choreiform movements and a unique pattern of motoric hyperactivity), as well as by relapsing and remitting symptom course. Acronym PANDAS(pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infection) was used to denote a subgroup of OCD or tic disorder patients with these clinical characteristics. Then, there was a report suggesting that PANDAS category include some of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) and were two case reports of anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder with characteristics of PANDAS. This case is a patient who developed normally until age of 7, but after pharyngeal inflammation with high fever, he showed disturbance of cognition, social relationship, and language and communication, as well as tic symtoms and abnormal movement on face, hand, and foot. We report this case with review of literatures, because we think that this case belongs to the PANDAS category. Based on this observation, we suggest that PANDAS category include some of childhood disintegrative disorder as well as OCD, tic disorder, and ADHD.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.291-298
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• 2007

Olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus is one of the most important cultured fish in Korea, its farming has been negatively impacted by viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases. Streptococcal infection was considered as a serious problem because of significant economic losses in olive flounder farm industry. The development and evaluation of vaccine for protection against infection by this agent were required. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of ${\beta}$-hemolytic Streptococcus (S.) iniae vaccine on olive flounder Three hundreds of flounders (weight $119.8{\pm}20.7g$, body length $22.6{\pm}1.4cm$) were reared in 0.5 tons aquaria in land-marine tank system. Seawater was provided from the sea of Inchon in Korea, and water temperature was set to $22^{\circ}C$ and $25^{\circ}C$ in the vaccination and challenge test, respectively. We used the formalin-inactivated ${\beta}$-hemolytic S. iniae (F2K) vaccine (M VAC INIAE; Kyoritsu seiyaku, Japan) originated in Japan. The vaccine was intraperitoneally administered to fish. Both of vaccinated group and control group were challenged with intraperitoneally injection by virulent S. iniae SI-36 isolates with $1.0{\times}10^7CFU/fish$ at 3 weeks after vaccination. Difference on mortality of control and vaccinated group (90.0 and 15.0%, 76.5 and 8.0% respectively) at two trials were found significant (p<0.05), and relative percent survival were 83.4% and 89.5%, respectively. The dead fishes were showed dark pigmentation of skin, abdominal extension, hemorrhagic ascites, and liver necrosis, and isolated the S. iniae strain from ascites, liver and kidney. We confirmed the safety and efficacy of ${\beta}$-hemolytic S. iniae vaccine by determinations of the optimal management condition and artificial challenge test in olive flounder.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.180-185
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• 1995

1. Purpose The accurate diagnosis and proper treatment of group A streptococcus should be emphasized concerning about possible development of late sequelae, such as acute rheumatic fever and acute glomerulonephritis. We would like to know the recover rate of beta-hemolytic streptococci by throat swab culture at the in-patient 2. Methods The throat swab cultures and filled up flow-sheets were undertaken on 619 children who had admitted to hospital, KyungHee university hospital from may 1994 to april 1995 prospectively. At the same time on admission, throat culture was performed. 3. Results The highest recover rate of BHS(Beta-Hemolytic Streptococci)and GAS(Group A Streptococci) were seen in above 10 years old, as 9.1% and 1.9%. BHS were obtained in 39 cases(6.3%) among 619 children while GAS was obtained in 3 cases (0.4%). Among 39 specimens of BHS, 33 specimens were classified as non-grouping streptococcus. 4. Conclusion The poor recovery rate of GAS inpatient compared with normal carrier rate is likely due to possible antibiotic abuse, errors in processing samples, and epidemiologic factors such as seasons and geographic areas. It is necessary to evaluate the clinical significance of non-A,B,C,G streptococcal infections and carriers.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 2017

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic carriers of group A ${\beta}-hemolytic$ streptococci (GAS) in children living in a rural community and to investigate the association between episodes of acute pharyngitis and carrier status. Methods: Throat swabs were collected from September to November 2013 among children 5-13 years of age from a rural community (Maria Ignacia-Vela, Argentina). The phenotypic characterization of isolates was performed by conventional tests. Antimicrobial susceptibility was assayed for penicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, and clindamycin (disk diffusion). The minimum inhibitory concentration was determined for penicillin, cefotaxime, tetracycline, and erythromycin. Results: The carriage of ${\beta}-hemolytic$ streptococci was detected in 18.1% of participants, with Streptococcus pyogenes in 18 participants followed by S. dysgalactiae ssp. equisimilis in 5. The highest proportion of GAS was found in 8 to 10-year-old children. No significant association between the number of episodes of acute pharyngitis suffered in the last year and the carrier state was detected (p>0.05). Tetracycline resistance (55.5%) and macrolide-resistant phenotypes (11.1%) were observed. Resistance to penicillin, cefotaxime, or chloramphenicol was not expressed in any streptococcal isolate. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated significant throat carriage of GAS and the presence of group C streptococci (S. dysgalactiae ssp. equisimilis) in an Argentinian rural population. These results point out the need for continuous surveillance of GAS and non-GAS carriage as well as of antimicrobial resistance in highly susceptible populations, such as school-aged rural children. An extended surveillance program including school-aged children from different cities should be considered to estimate the prevalence of GAS carriage in Argentina.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.143-151
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• 2000

Purpose : The accuracy of bacteriologic diagnosis of beta-hemolytic streptococcal pharyngotonsillitis depends on the degree of carrier rate in that area where the throat swabs are obtained and the evaluation of serological T typing as an epidemiologic marker is important to understand epidemiology of streptococcal infection. The purpose of this study is to know the carrier rates of group A streptococcus in normal children form four different areas and to find out the epidemiologic characteristic in distribution of the serotypes for 3 years. Method : Throat swabs were obtained from the tonsillar fossa of normal school children in four different areas(Uljin, Seoul, Osan, Kunsan) from March to May 1996, in Uljin in April 1997, and in Uljin in April 1998. The samples were plated on a 5% sheep blood agar plate and incubated overnight at $37^{\circ}C$ before examination for the presence of beta-hemolytic colonies. All isolated beta-hemolytic streptococcus were grouped and serotyped by T agglutination. Results : The carrier rate of beta-hemolytic streptococci and group A streptococci in 1996 were 27.6%, 18.6% at Uljin; 16.4%, 2.7% at Seoul; 33.0%, 26.0% at Osan; 20.0%, 12.3% at Kunsan, respectively. Among 1,192 normal school children from 4 different areas, we obtained 179 strains of group A streptococci. Fifty two percent of the strains were typable by T agglutination in 1996. Common T-type in 1996 were NT, T1, T3, T2 at Uljin; T12, T25 at Seoul; NT, T6, T28 at Osan; T25, T4, NT, T5 at Kunsan, in decreasing order, respectively. At Uljin, T1, T3, T25 accounted for 69% of strains in 1996, T1, T12, T25 accounted for 70% in 1997, and T12, T4 accounted for 88% in 1998. Conclusion : Higher carrier rates were found in Uljin and Osan, where there are a lower population density with scanty of medical facilities compared with another areas. We supposed that low carrier rates is likely to be related to antibiotic abuse or some epidemiologic factor. The periodic and seasonal serotyping analysis is important in monitoring and understanding the epidemiologic patterns of group A streptococci.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.209-216
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• 2011

This study carried out to investigate the pathogenic Streptococcus spp. isolated from respiratory tract of Thoroughbred in Jeju province. The specimens were collected from nasal mucosa using a culture swab from 113 Thoroughbred horses. Suspected colonies were selected onto blood and MacConkey agar plate, and identified by standard biochemical properties using Vitek 2 system and PCR method. In this study, we isolated S. equi (n=6), S. zooepidemicus (n=31), S. equisimilis (n=5), S. dysgalactiae (n=2), S. agalctiae (n=1), non identified ${\beta}$-hemolytic Streptococcus spp. (n=1) from Thoroughbred horses. In antimicrobial susceptibility test, it showed a high sensibility in the most of antimicrobial except for neomycin, streptomycin, spectinomycin, erythromycin and clindamycin. These results will provide the basic information to establish control measures for the treatment and prevention of respiratory disease by pathogenic Streptococcus spp. in Thoroughbred horses in Korea.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.158-163
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• 2006

This work describes an outbreak of strangles due to Streptococcus equi subsp. equi in 1 to 2 years old Thoroughbred horses. A total of 7 samples were collected from 5 horses in two different horse farms during 2003. Six ${\beta}$-hemolytic colonies selected from each sample were identified by biochemical tests using API STREPTO followed by PCR amplification which is able to recognize unique region of SeM gene of S. equi subsp. equi. All colonies selected from the ruptured lymphadenitis of 2 horses in farm A were identified as S. dysgalactiae subsp. equisimillis. It seems to be secondary infection because the sampling sites have been already opened and the horses have been treated with antibiotics for a week. All colonies from 2 submandibular lymphadenitis samples in Farm B were S. equi subsp. equi while the isolates from 3 nasal discharges in this farm were mixed with S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus.