TY - JOUR AU - Klugman, Keith AU - Lonks, John T1 - Hidden Epidemic of Macrolide-resistant Pneumococci T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2005 VL - 11 IS - 6 SP - 802 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Community-acquired respiratory tract infections (RTIs) account for a substantial proportion of outpatient antimicrobial drug prescriptions worldwide. Concern over the emergence of multidrug resistance in pneumococci has largely been focused on penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. Macrolide antimicrobial drugs have been widely used to empirically treat community-acquired RTIs because of their efficacy in treating both common and atypical respiratory pathogens, including S. pneumoniae. However, increased macrolide use has been associated with a global increase in pneumococcal resistance, which is leading to concern over the continued clinical efficacy of the macrolides to treat community-acquired RTIs. We provide an overview of macrolide-resistant S. pneumoniae and assess the impact of this resistance on the empiric treatment of community-acquired RTIs. KW - Keywords: Antibiotic resistance KW - Streptococcus pneumoniae KW - Macrolides KW - Community-acquired infections KW - Treatment failure KW - United States DO - 10.3201/eid1106.050147 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/11/6/05-0147_article ER - End of Reference