PREDOMINANCE OF RESISTANT ORAL STREPTOCOCCI IN SALIVA AND THE EFFECT OF A SINGLE COURSE OF JOSAMYCIN OR ERYTHROMYCIN

We have investigated the influence of the macrolides erythromycin and josamycin on the selection of resistant oral streptococci by sampling saliva of volunteers before and ofter oral administration of 1.5 g of either agent followed by a further 0.5 g of the same drug after 6 h, as in routine prophylaxis for oral or dental procedures. The small proportion of resistant organisms present before antibiotic administration increased substantially 48 h after the macrolides were given. After antibiotic administration mean counts of oral streptococci resistant to 1, 4 and 64 mg/l erythromycin were 23%, 17% and 6%, respectively, of the total numbers of streptococci isolated; after josamycin, the values were 13%, 6% and 4% respectively. The proportion of resistant streptococci then declined gradually but remained above pre-antibiotic levels three months later. Streptococci isolated on media containing 64 mg/l of macrolides were mainly Streptococcus sanguis and S. mitis with one isolate of S. salivarius, the majority were resistant to 256 mg/l erythromycin, josamycin, all other macrolides tested and clindamydn. Amoxycillin and pristinamycin were the only compounds tested that were inhibitory to these organisms at therapeutically attainable concentrations. © 1990 by The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.