Capsular Typing of
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Clinical Isolates
In Bali
Ni Nengah Dwi Fatmawati1,2*, Ni Made Adi Tarini1, I Putu Bayu Mayura1
1Department of Clinical Microbiology, Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University 2Molecular Biology Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University, Bali, Indonesia
Jl. PB. Sudirman, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia *nnd.fatmawati@unud.ac.id
As a part of tropical area in Indonesia, Bali is easy to prone with infectious diseases including respiratory tract infections. One of respiratory tract infectious agents is Streptococcus pneumoniae. This gram-positive bacterium can cause not only respiratory tract infections (pneumonia), but also more invasive infections, such as sepsis and meningitis. One of S. pneumoniae major virulence factors is capsule. Polysaccharides capsule of S. pneumoniae are known as pneumococcal vaccine component. Among 90 capsule types of S. pneumoniae that have been investigated, several types have been found to be dominant in Indonesia such as types 6, 23, 15, 33 and 12 in West Nusa Tenggara, type 7F in Jakarta, and types 6A/B dan 15B/C in Central Java. However, almost no data is reported in Bali about capsule genotype of
S. pneumoniae. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine capsule types of S. pneumoniae isolates in Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Sanglah General Hospital, Denpasar, Bali. Twenty-one isolates that were isolated from blood (11/52.4%), sputum (5/23.8%), and other clinical specimens (5/23.8%) were included in this study. Identification of S. pneumoniae was based on sensitivity of the isolates against optochin. All isolates were subjected to PCR for capsular typing. The result showed that 7 isolates (66.7%) were type 19F, 2 isolates (9.5%) were positive for 23F and also for type 6A/B. Furthermore, there was 1 isolate (4.8%) for each type 7F and 15B/C. Total 8 isolates (38.1%) were nontypeable isolates. This study showed the capsular types of S. pneumoniae clinical isolates in Bali, so far is quite unique if compared to those in other places in Indonesia. Further study now is still in progress to determine and characterize the nontypeable isolates.
Keywords: Streptococcus pneumoniae, capsular type, PCR, Pneumococcal vaccine
