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. 1978 Jun 24;1(6128):1657–1660. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.6128.1657

Antibiotic resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. Report of a study group on bacterial resistance.

A J Howard, C J Hince, J D Williams
PMCID: PMC1605483  PMID: 26450

Abstract

Twenty laboratories in England and Scotland took part in 1977 in a survey of antibiotic resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. In Str pneumoniae 59 (6.8%) of the 866 strains studied were resistant to tetracycline and three to chloramphenicol, and one strain showed a decreased susceptibility to penicillin. The prevalence of resistance to tetracycline was lower than that found in a similar study performed in 1975. Nine hundred and fifty-two strains of H influenzae were examined: 15 (1.6%) were resistant to ampicillin (all were beta-lactamase producers) and 26 (2.7%) to tetracycline. Only two strains were resistant to chloramphenicol and two to trimethoprim. Sixty-three H influenzae strains were capsulated. Thirty-four of these were of Pittman type b, and antibiotic resistance, particularly to ampicillin, was more common in these than in other serotypes or non-typable strains. Some variation was seen in the resistance rate of both H influenzae and Str pneumoniae to tetracycline in strains from different centres, but too few were isolated to assess whether this represented a true geographical difference.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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