Pneumococcal bacteraemia in Belgium (1994 2004): the pre-conjugate vaccine era

Objectives To analyse the evolution of antibiotic resistance and serotype distribution in pneumococcal bacteraemia before the introduction of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (7PCV). Methods Serotyping and susceptibility testing for penicillin and erythromycin were performed on 11 163 blood isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae collected between 1994 and 2004. Results Penicillin resistance rose from 4.7% in 1994 to 15.2% ( P = 0.001) in 2000 and decreased thereafter to 9.7% ( P = 0.001) in 2004. Erythromycin resistance rose from 20.4% in 1994 to 34.4% ( P = 0.001 in 2001) and stabili... Mehr ...