Canadian national survey of prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Canadian Bacterial Surveillance Network.

The antimicrobial susceptibilities of 1,089 clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae obtained from 39 laboratories across Canada between October 1994 and August 1995 were determined. A total of 91 isolates (8.4%) demonstrated intermediate resistance (MIC, 0.1 to 1.0 microgram/ml) and 36 (3.3%) had high-level resistance (MIC, > or = 2.0 micrograms/ml) to penicillin. Penicillin-resistant strains were more likely to have been recovered from normally sterile sites (P = 0.005) and to be cross-resistant to several beta-lactam and non-beta-lactam antimicrobial agents (P < 0.05). These results indicate that there has been a recent significant increase in the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant S. pneumoniae in Canada.