Background:Inflammation of tonsils is a common disease of the throat that occurs predominantly in the
children. Sothis prospective study was carried out to determine the pattern of bacterial strains and their
antibiotic sensitivity amongst children with tonsillitis admitted to the E.N.T Department, Faculty of
Medicine,Qena University Hospital for elective tonsillectomy.
Patients and Method(s): Thirty-five children (2 to 17 years old) suffering from chronic tonsillitis were
sampled. The bacterial isolates were identified phenotypically based on morphological, hemolysis
pattern and biochemical characters using different media or identified genotypically through 16S rRNA
gene sequencing.
Results: The bacterial strains were identified as Staphylococcus aureus (40%) followed by
Streptococcus pyogenes (35%), Streptococcus australis (15%), and Streptococcus pneumoniae (10%).
The susceptibility of the isolates was tested towards 8 different types of antibiotics (Bioanalyse®). The
results showed that most bacterial isolates were multidrug-resistant bacteria that showed resistant to
three or more tested antibiotics.
Conclusion: The present study revealed that the ß-haemolytic Streptococci (BHS) is a significant causal
agent of tonsillitis in our environment which causes a potential danger of rheumatic fever and
rheumatic heart disease.