Sensitivity of group A streptococci to antibiotics. Prevalence of resistance to erythromycin in Japan.

More than 60% of all strains of group A streptococci isolated during the period from 1974 to 1975 from children with streptococcal infections in Hokkaido district, Japan, were highly resistant to erythromycin. These strains were found to be multiply resistant to lincomycin hydrochloride monohydrate, chloramphenicol, and tetracycline, and were exclusively type 12 by T-protein typing. The clinical symptoms produced by these organisms were rather mild, responded to penicillin well, and were rarely complicated with glomerulonephritis.

Strong association between membranous nephropathy and hepatitis-B surface antigenaemia in Japanese children.

Renal histology in 163 Japanese children, aged 3 to 15, with proteinuria and/or haematuria showed that 11 had membranous nephropathy (M.N) and the rest had various other renal diseases. Hepatitis-B-virus surface antigen (HBsAg) was identified, by a reversed passive haemagglutination method, in the serum of all the patients with M.