SEROTYPES AND ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY OF HAEMOPHILUS-INFLUENZAE

During a one year prospective study of Haemophilus influenzae infectio ns in patients treated in hospitals in the metropolitan area of Cape T own, H. influenzae type b accounted for 81.7% of 126 invasive isolates , whereas 86.1% of the 280 non-invasive isolates were non-typeable. Am picillin resistance was detected among 10.8% of strains of which all b ut one produced beta-lactamase. An strains were susceptible to cefotax ime as were more than 95% to chloramphenicol, rifampicin, tetracycline but 20.4% were resistant to co-trimoxazole and 87.2% to erythromycin.