ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS INFECTIONS

Strains of antibiotic-resistant staphylococci that develop in a hospital are becoming increasingly important as a cause of untoward complications of hospitalization.The hospital environment and hospital personnel present the chief reservoir of antibiotic-resistant strains; and they, as well as patients discharged after hospital stay, may represent the greatest source of antibiotic-resistant strains found in the community at large.Cross infection appears to be thwarted by rigid adherence to antiseptic techniques.     

STAPHYLOCOCCIC INFECTIONS IN CHILDREN

Over 50 per cent of all staphylococcic infections are hospital-acquired. In 92 per cent of hospital-acquired infection, the organism is resistant to penicillin, and in 74 per cent to tetracycline.Chloramphenicol, bacitracin, novobiocin and erythromycin are the drugs of choice for therapy. There was good correlation between clinical response and antibiotic therapy selected on the basis of results of organism sensitivity tests done by the agar diffusion technique.Cross-resistance among the tetracyclines averaged 94 per cent. Erythromycin and magnamycin showed similar pattern.Mortality in infants less than two months old was 7.8 per cent as compared with 1.1 per cent in older children. Death was related either to pneumonia or to septicemia in the ten fatalities recorded in this series.