Update of the activity of cefditoren and comparator oral beta-lactam agents tested against community-acquired Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates (USA, 2004-2006).

Cefditoren and other orally administered cephalosporins are infrequently included in resistance surveillance studies. Here we evaluated 359 contemporary (2004-2006) strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, including penicillin-intermediate (12.0%) and -resistant (22.8%) subsets from United States patients by reference broth microdilution methods. Cefditoren was the most potent cephalosporin tested (MIC(50), 0.015 mg/L), including against penicillin-intermediate strains (MIC(50), 0.12 mg/L), and was two-, four- and eight-fold more active than cefuroxime, cefdinir and cefprozil, respectively. Penicillin-resistant strains were largely resistant to all tested ss-lactams. We confirm the continued spectrum and potency for cefditoren against S. pneumoniae that surpasses that of other orally administered cephalosporins.