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Drug
Resistant Bacteria
Continue to Spread
NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - One in four strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae--the
leading bacterial cause of pneumonia, middle ear infections and
meningitis--now appear to be resistant to penicillin, according
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, 24%
of strains collected from people with bacterial infections in
normally sterile body areas--such as the brain, blood or joints--were
found to be resistant to the antibiotic, the researchers report
in the December 28th issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
More than
4,000 of such infections were reported to the CDC in the US in
1998, and 3,475 were tested for antibiotic resistance. Georgia
and Tennessee showed the highest rate of resistance to penicillin
at 33% and 35% respectively.
In addition,
the researchers found that penicillin resistant infections were
more common in children under 5 years of age (32%) compared with
those older than five years of age (21%). Those infections resistant
to penicillin also were more likely to be resistant to a number
of different antibiotics. The good news is that new vaccines that
protect against Streptococcus pneumoniae appear to protect against
most infections caused by drug-resistant microbes, report Dr.
Cynthia Whitney and colleagues.
They suggest
that ``a high priority should be placed on preventing disease''
by increasing use of vaccines for children and at-risk adults.
In an editorial,
other researchers add that curbing the misuse of antibiotics is
another important facet of controlling drug-resistance.
``The antibiotic
era is barely 60 years old, yet the inappropriate use of these
drugs threatens our ability to cope with infections,'' according
to Dr. Richard P. Wenzel and Dr. Michael B. Edmond of Virginia
Commonwealth University in Richmond.
``Looking
forward, we need to reassess policies on antibiotic use while
changing our approach to include vaccination against pneumococcal
infections of all children under the age of 4, adults over the
age of 65 and all people with HIV infection.''
SOURCE:
The New England Journal of Medicine 2000;343:1917-1924
Reference
Source 89
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