Using hospital antibiogram data to assess regional pneumococcal resistance to antibiotics.
Antimicrobial resistance to penicillin and macrolides in Streptococcus pneumoniae has increased in the United States over the past decade. Considerable geographic variation in susceptibility necessitates regional resistance tracking. Traditional active surveillance is labor intensive and costly. We collected antibiogram reports from North Carolina hospitals and assessed pneumococcal susceptibility to multiple agents from 1996 through 2000. Susceptibility in North Carolina was consistently lower than the national average. Aggregating antibiogram data is a feasible and timely method of monitoring regional susceptibility patterns and may also prove beneficial in measuring the effects of interventions to decrease antimicrobial resistance.
Stein
Cheryl R
CR
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Weber
David J
DJ
Kelley
Meera
M
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D018432:Drug Resistance, Multiple; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D018942:Macrolides; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000191:economics; D010641:Phenotype; D011008:Pneumococcal Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D018942:Macrolides