H. influenzae is one of the most important reason of pneumonia and meningitidis in children under 6 years old and the sixth leading cause of death in developing countries, highlighting on the importance of this bacterium in medicine [22, 23]. In treating the patients the antibiotic resistance pattern of this bacterium has been widely studied in recent years. In 2010, Bae et al. by investigation respiratory tract H. influenzae isolates in Korea reported the percentage of resistance as 58.5%, 23.3%, 18.7%, 17%, 10.4% and 81% relative to ampicillin, ceforoxim, clarithromycin, cefaclor, amoxicillin, and chloramphenicol respectively [24]. In 2015, Boroumand et al. by investigation of H. influenza isolates from Milad hospital in Tehran reported that resistance to clindamycin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline was observed in all (100%) isolates. Percentage resistance to amoxicillin, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin and azithromycin were 95%, 50%, 45% and 5% respectively. Also, all isolates (100%) were sensitive to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole [25]. However, levofloxacin and cefotaxime had the strongest effect in this study. Within 20 years, Ladhani et al identified 6805 strains of H. influenzae from CSF. More than half of them (55%) were type B. Resistance to ampicillin, trimethoprim, tetracycline, and chloramphenicol were 16%, 8%, 2%, and 1% respectively. All strains were susceptible to cefotaxime and only 0.06% was resistant to rifampin. Based on the results of them research, rifampicin and cefotaxime have the most effect on H. influenzae isolates. This shows the changes on antibiotic susceptibility among the strains of H. influenzae [26]. In Iran the results of susceptibility of H. influenza showed 85% of the isolates were susceptible to chloramphenicol and 71% to ampicillin and cefotaxime [27]. Considering Li et al. findings in 2017 indicated that all respiratory isolates were high resistant to ampicillin, cefuroxime, clarithromycin, and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim. The percentage of resistance to cefuroxime, ampicillin/sulbactam, cefotaxime, clarithromycin, and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim were 72.1%, 95.9%, 96.4%, 81.8%, and 36.4%, respectively and [28]. In our study, 90 percent of strains were susceptible to tetracycline. Compare to other countries, this level has been increased. The resistance to chloramphenicol and ampicillin were 42% and 43%, respectively which is similar to other countries. In terms of co-trimoxazole, 58% of strains were resistant. This finding is similar to Malaysia [29].
On the other hand, due to the pathogenic importance, H. influenzae has widely considered in epidemiologic studies on genetic similarities [19]. Given the dendrogram of the studies strains (Fig. 2), it is observed that a number of strains categorized in one clone (e.g. clone A and B). As the studied population was children under 6 years old from different centers, it is concluded that these strains circulated among children. The strains of clone A, isolated from five different children, are identical in terms of resistance to antibiotics except chloramphenicol. As the same the strains of clone B have identical resistance, except for chloramphenicol which is different in one strain. Regardless of intermediate resistance, the strains of clones D, E, F, G, and H have the same resistance pattern. The strains of clones I and J are partially different in their resistance. Detailed data was specified in Fig.2 and Additional file 3, 4.
The resistance pattern of one strain in clone B is identical to other strains of that clone except chloramphenicol. In terms of clone C, the strain (strain No. 89) that closely related to other strains, is different from them in resistance pattern. This may be because of the difference in the genetic algorithm. In the strains forming clone A and B, susceptibility to ceftriaxone, levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and cefotaxime was observed. This showed that these antibiotics have a good therapeutic effect on these strains.
As the studied strains showed a less percentage of resistance to these antibiotics, these drugs can be a good choice for Haemophilus-related infections. Considering chloramphenicol and ampicillin resistant samples, the strains resistant to ampicillin are more identical in terms of genetic similarities and showed more clones comparing with strains resistant to chloramphenicol. This may mean that strains resistant to ampicillin are more resistant to common treatment than strains resistant to chloramphenicol (Fig. 2).