ABSTRACT

Lower respiratory tract infections still cause high morbidity and mortality rates in the world. In 1998, the WHO reported more than 3.7 million deaths caused by these infections worldwide. Finishing Second World War, in the middle of twenty century, the first anti-microbial agents were developed showing healing capacity for this kind of infections, making us think that lower respiratory tract infections would be history in the years ahead and may be for good, thanks to penicillin and the rest of new antimicrobial agents. Unfortunately six decades after the development of penicillin we find that the epidemiological burden of lower respiratory tract infections is still at large, causing a very huge impact on time, economical resources and human lives. The reason behind this permanence of the problem resides in bacterial resistance, which has arised and made obsolete many antimicrobial agents through the world. The present paper analyzes the current situation regarding the resistance and susceptibility profiles of S. pneumoniae, as long as this is the main pathogen involved in the development of the so called community acquired pneumonia, or CAP.

KEYWORDS

Pneumonia, S. pneumoniae, bacterial resistance..

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