COMPARATIVE IN-VITRO ACTIVITY OF SPARFLOX ACIN AND OTHER ANTIMICROBIALS AGAINST BACTERIA ISOLATED FROM COMMUNITY-ACQUIRED RESPIRATORY-INFECTIONS

Sparfloxacin is a new antimicrobial that, while maintaining a good act ivity against gram negative bacilli, has a better in vitro activity ag ainst gram postive bacteria such as S pneumoniae, intracellular pathog ens and anaerobic bacteria. The aim of this was to study the in vitro activity of sparfloxacin agianst bacteria isolated from patients with community acquired respiratory infections between October 1994 and Jan uary 1995. Using the E-test technique, we studied the susceptibility t o sparfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, ampilillin, amonicillin/clavulanic acid . cefuroxine, cefotaxime, ertythromycin, methicillin and nalidixic aci d of 50 strains of S pneumoniae, 50 strains of H. influenzae, 50 strai ns of S aureus and 50 strains of S pyogenes strains. Twenty two percen t of S aureus strains were resistant and the MIC 90 was 12 mu g/ml. Sp arfloxacin showed the best in vitro activity against H influenzae and S aureus, a similar activity with ampilillin and cefotaxine against S pueumoniae and a similar activity with ampicillin but superior to all other studied antimocrobial against S pyogenes. It is concluded that s parfloxacin is a good antimicrobial for bacteria isolated from patient s with respiratory infections.