Microbes Make Gains
The bugs seem to be winning the battle against treatment for many infections. Led by Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, the Southeast United States has the highest rate in the country of penicillin resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae infections.
UAB Hospital data in 1999 indicate that 18 percent of laboratory tests on S. pneumoniae isolates exhibited high-level penicillin resistance; 5 percent of tests showed full resistance to another major treatment, ceftriaxone. S. pneumoniae causes otitis media, meningitis, and pneumonia.
"Resistance to penicillin is common in association with resistance to other drugs," said microbiologist Ken Waites, M.D. He says that antibiotic resistance results largely from indiscriminate use of antibiotics, failure of patients to take prescribed antibiotics completely, or inadequate dosing.
Contact Hank Black, Media Relations, 205-934-8938 or [email protected].
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