Activity of moxifloxacin against clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae from England and Wales

The activity of moxifloxacin was assessed against 1269 isolates of Streptoc occus pneumoniae, comprising 462 isolates referred from UK hospitals, prima rily for confirmation of resistance to first line agents, and 807 isolates from an enhanced surveillance of invasive infections. Resistance rates to p enicillin, erythromycin, tetracycline and chloramphenicol were 88.7% (32.6% intermediate and 56.1% fully resistant), 50, 48 and 22.7%, respectively, f or the former, and 8.0 (4.5% intermediate and 3.5% fully resistant), 14.7, 9.0 and 0.6% for the latter. Ninety-four per cent of the referred isolates and 99% of the surveillance isolates were susceptible to moxifloxacin at le ss than or equal to1 mg/L. Moxifloxacin may therefore be a useful drug for the treatment of patients with pneumococcal infections due to antibiotic-re sistant strains or those with severe invasive disease.