Current Pattern of Antibiotic Sensitivity of Pneumococci

Abstract

Streptococcus pneumoniae, which can cause respiratory tract infections, meningitis and other types of serious infections, has been known to be exceedingly susceptible to benzylpenicillin and other betalactam antibiotics. Recent reports from South Africa [1, 2], however, of strains resistant to many antibiotics including betalactam drugs, added an alarming new dimension to the antimicrobial susceptibility of Streptococcus pneumoniae. The reports from South Africa indicate that naturally-occurring strains of pneumococci clearly have the potential for significant resistance to penicillin and also to other antimicrobials. About half of the infected patients with bacteremia or meningitis caused by such resistant strains subsequently died. The rapid spread of these pneumococci to other patients and to medical personnel, and their appearance in two hospitals simultaneously, underscore their communicability as well as their virulence.