Emerging antimicrobial resistance, plasmid profile and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pattern of the endonuclease-digested genomic DNA of Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Resistant gonococci are very prevalent in many countries, particularly in Asia. This study was conducted to determine the trend of resistance, the effect of decreasing the ciprofloxacin susceptibilities of gonococci on the prevalence of penicillinase-producing N. gonorrhoeae (PPNG), and to compare the epidemiology of strains with the previous studies. A total of 602 strains of gonococci were isolated from prostitutes in 1997-1999. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by NCCLS disk diffusion and agar dilution methods. For epidemiologic analysis, plasmid analysis and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) were performed. The proportion of PPNG remained high (79%), and the strains with decreased susceptibility to ciprofloxacin increased significantly from 67% in 1997 to 84% in 1999. Compared to our previous study, the PFGE patterns were similar, while the proportion of strain with the 3.2-MDa plasmid markedly decreased. In conclusion, a rapid increase in ciprofloxacin-nonsusceptible strains may suggest difficulties in the treatment of gonococcal infections in the near future with the drug. The recent decrease of PPNG with the 3.2-MDa plasmid may suggest that there is an epidemiological change in gonococcal infections, and the prevalence of related PFGE patterns suggests the dissemination of a few clones among the high risk populations.