Hemophilus Influenzae in Adult Bronchopulmonary Infection

Abstract

The admission of a 45-year-old man with recent exposure to epidemic viral influence and H. influenzae pneumonia prompted a review of patients seen in this hospital with pneumonia and sputum cultures yielding H. influenzae. The criteria for diagnosing primary H. influenzae respiratory infection include definite clinical and roentgenographic evidence of bronchitis or pneumonia, recovery of abundant growth of H. influenzae from the sputum, absence of prior treatment with antibacterial agents known to eradicate-H. influenzae infection, and favorable clinical response to such agents after adequate bacteriologic examination of the sputum. Infrequency of acute H. influenzae respiratory infection in the adult does not warrant disregarding it as a pathogen, particularly in patients with chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema, and bronchiectasis. Bacteriologic studies are urged on the sputa of patients with pneumonia and acute bronchitis, before initiation of antibacterial therapy. Streptomycin, chloramphen-icol, sulionamides, and tetracycline cogeners, alone or in various combinations, are effective. The increased incidence of H. influenzae in the sputa of patients with long-standing bronchopulmonary disease and no acute infection was also found in this hospital.