Community-Acquired Pneumonia Due to Penicillin-Resistant Pneumococci

Abstract

Until 1967 all strains of pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumoniae) were thought to be highly sensitive to penicillin.^{1 , 2} In that year Hansman and Bullen³ described a patient with hypogammaglobulinemia and bronchiectasis in whom a strain of pneumococcus that was relatively insensitive to penicillin was isolated from the sputum. Reports followed of the occurrence of strains with an even greater resistance to penicillin^{4 , 5} as well as resistance to other antibiotics to which the pneumococcus had previously been sensitive.^{6 7 8} Previous studies in South Africa have shown that infections due to resistant pneumococci, as well as asymptomatic carrier states, have occurred almost exclusively . . .