Comportamiento de los estreptococos beta-hemolíticos en escolares

introduction: streptococci are responsible for different infectious diseases in the community; some of them with serious consequences as rheumatic fever, endocarditis, glomerulonefritis, alopecia or scarlet fever, and have the potential to cause outbreaks in closed communities like school children. objectives: the objective of this study was to determine the frequency and variability of the different groups of beta-hemolytic streptococci in carrier school children (12-18 years old) in different schools in the town of san fernando, as well as their antimicrobial susceptibilities. material and methods: samples taken from 160 school children of both sexes were cultured and incubated for 48 hours. gram stains, catalase tests and bacitracin sensitivity tests were carried out. serogroups were identified by agglutination tests using the oxoid kit. antimicrobial susceptibility was determined with becton-dickinson discs with different antibiotics. results: from 34 positive samples we isolated 6 group a beta hemolytic streptococci strains (3,75%), 2 group b strains, 5 group c, 10 group f, 6 group g and 5 non-groupables (considered important due to the abundance of colonies on the plate). although not significant we found a higher frequency of groups a and g streptococci in males and groups c and f in females. conclusions: the frequency of the isolated groups b, c, f, g and non-groupable beta hemolytic streptococci represents a higher percentage in comparison with studies carried out in other cities. as for the strains of s. pyogenes we found antimicrobial susceptibility and resistance rates similar to those of other cities, but lower than that of the valencia study in 2002.