title: Canadian national survey of prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Canadian Bacterial Surveillance Network.
abstract: The antimicrobial susceptibilities of 1,089 clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae obtained from 39 laboratories across Canada between October 1994 and August 1995 were determined. A total of 91 isolates (8.4%) demonstrated intermediate resistance (MIC, 0.1 to 1.0 microgram/ml) and 36 (3.3%) had high-level resistance (MIC, > or = 2.0 micrograms/ml) to penicillin. Penicillin-resistant strains were more likely to have been recovered from normally sterile sites (P = 0.005) and to be cross-resistant to several beta-lactam and non-beta-lactam antimicrobial agents (P < 0.05). These results indicate that there has been a recent significant increase in the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant S. pneumoniae in Canada.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Simor
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Louie
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Low
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D011008:Pneumococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects*