[Serotype and antibiotic resistance of pneumococci isolated at the Aix-en-Provence Hospital Center].

Over a 2 year period from April 1980 to April 1982, 240 pneumococci isolated from amongst 208 patients during 216 infectious episodes were serotyped. Sensitivity to standard antibiotics was determined for 209 of these strains. Pneumococci are divided into 33 serotypes. The vaccination cover provided by the vaccine currently commercially available is 70%. AUSTRIAN and GESLIN feel that the surveillance of bacteraemias is the most effective method for the choice of vaccine formula in order to eliminate the bias due to healthy carriers. In the present study, pneumococci isolated from 41 bacteraemias came from 14 serotypes and vaccine cover was 90%. Amongst 209 strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, 25.8% were resistant to tetracyclines, 10.5% to sulphonamides, 6.6% to chloramphenicol, 5.7% to erythromycin, 2.8% to co-trimoxazole and none to penicillin.