Battling Penicillin-Resistant Pneumonia.

• Position: Fluoroquinolones - Brief Article

A new class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones can counter infections--such as pneumonia--caused by penicillin-resistant strains of a common pathogen. However, caution is necessary for physicians and patients, according to Michael Klepser, an assistant professor in the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy, Iowa City. Fluoroquinolones are a group of antibiotics increasingly recognized for their ability to treat infections associated with the pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Treatments like fluoroquinolones are expanding in importance as infections from that pathogen become more resistant to normal antibiotic treatment, he indicates. "The issue of resistance to penicillin is more and more problematic. Streptococcus pneumoniae accounts for a variety of infections affecting lots of people. If these strains are resistant to penicillin, which they are at growing rates, they are often resistant to other antibiotics."

The infections associated with this pathogen, including sinusitis and ear infections commonly contracted by children, are frequently encountered, Klepser points out. The growing prevalence of penicillin-resistant infections is prompting clinicians and researchers to find other methods of treatment like fluoroquinolones, which originated in the 1960s and were developed into usable medications in the 1980s. Many clinicians are aware of these antibiotics, and treatment guidelines exist for their use, but some may not be fully aware of the amounts of resistance to penicillin that exist.

"Doctors probably need to be aware of the susceptibility-to-penicillin patterns in the hospitals they work in and the community around them," he suggests. "Prior to the 1990s, doctors could assume that penicillin would work for patients...