Risk factors in drug-resistant pneumococcal pneumonia

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a pathogen that is commonly seen in community-acquired pneumonia. It is the major cause of potentially fatal community-acquired illnesses. Nonetheless, there has been a global increase in the various types of antibiotic resistance. The age of the patient is one of the risk variables that primary care clinicians should look for to identify if medication resistance would be an issue in a suspected Streptococcus pneumoniae case, with those over the age of 65 being more vulnerable (Mohamed and Hassan, 2013). The patient’s history of alcoholism, as well as any medical comorbidities, should be taken into account. The primary care provider should look for other risk factors such as immunosuppressive therapies and illnesses, beta-lactam, fluoroquinolone, macrolide therapy within the last three and six months (Rubinstein, 2011). Smoking has also been identified as a risk factor for the development of invasive S. Pneumonia infections (Mohamed and Hassan, 2013). The risk is fourfold when the patient is a smoker and reduced to 2.5-fold for the non-smokers. The risk factor of previous exposure to healthcare setting such as long-term care or hospitalization (Shaper, 2011). The risk also includes the children.

One Category of Drug Resistance

There are five classes of drug resistance. These include mono resistance, poly-resistance, multidrug resistance, Penicillin resistance and extensive drug resistance. Multi Drug Resistant Streptococcus Pneumonia (MDRSP) has been one of the most worrying categories because of the explosion in global prevalence. MDRSP is the resistance to several strains of antimicrobial agents (Mohamed and Hassan, 2013). The resistance is mainly for three or more strains or classes of the Streptococcus antimicrobial drugs. Its emergence complicates the management of the condition because of the limited treatment regimens thus heightening the interest in preventive measures such as vaccination (Rubinstein, 2011).

References

Mohamed, M. and Hassan, A. (2013). Serotyping and Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern of Streptococcus Pneumoniae Strains in Patients with Community-Acquired Pneumonia. Egyptian Journal of Medical Microbiology, 22(4), pp.69-80.

Rubinstein, G. (2011). Trends in Macrolide Resistance for Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus agalactiae and Streptococcus pneumoniae and its Association with Social Clustering in Argentina. The Open Antimicrobial Agents Journal, 3(1), pp.1-5.

Shaper, M. (2011). Antibiotic Resistance in Streptococcus pneumonia: A Disaster in the making. Epidemiology: Open Access, 01(01).