Drug-resistant pneumonia bacteria on the rise

August 6, 1999
Web posted at: 11:21 AM EDT (1521 GMT)

ATLANTA (AP) -- The bacteria that cause pneumonia, meningitis and other serious illnesses are becoming increasingly resistant to penicillin, federal health officials said.

The number of cases of streptococcus pneumoniae bacterium that proved resistant to antibiotics increased from 14 percent in 1993-94 to 25 percent in 1997, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

Although the study did not address the reason for the increase, Dr. Daniel Feikin of the CDC said one of the leading factors is overuse.

"A lot of infections are viral and antibiotics don't do anything for viral infections," he said. "So when people go in with a viral infection like a cold they come out with an antibiotic when they shouldn't."

The data came from a CDC study of hospitals in seven states. The prevalence of drug-resistant pneumonia varied from 15.3 percent in Maryland to 38.3 percent in Tennessee. Other states included in the study were California, Oregon, Connecticut, Minnesota and Georgia.

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