2023 Volume 72 Issue 4 Pages 605-613
Streptococcus agalactiae is increasingly reported as a causative agent of invasive infections [namely, group B streptococcal (GBS) bacteremia] in the elderly and adults with underlying diseases, with mortality rates ranging from 8.47 to 11.58%. In particular, bacteremic patients have a higher mortality rate than nonbacteremic patients, but because there are few reports focusing exclusively on GBS bacteremia, we examined GBS bacteremia retrospectively. We studied GBS bacteremia in 15 years and older from January 2015 to December 2021. Sixty-nine patients were found to have GBS bacteremia during this period, and the disease occurred more frequently in patients aged 60 years or older (88.4%), particularly in relation to the presence of diabetes mellitus (33.3%), liver cirrhosis (23.1%), and solid tumor (18.8%). GBS bacteremia was frequently caused by urinary tract infections (27.5%), skin and soft tissue infections (27.5%), and bloodstream infections of unknown focus (24.6%). The mortality rate of GBS bacteremia was 8.7%. The results of drug susceptibility testing of GBS strains showed that many of them were resistant to macrolide and new quinolone antibacterial agents, and two cases of GBS clinical isolates with reduced penicillin susceptibility (PRGBS) were also observed. PCG can be fully effective as a first-line drug for GBS bacteremia, but on the other hand, the presence of PRGBS must also be taken into account, albeit slightly.
