Assessment of clinical failures of oral antibiotics resulting
in invasive disease
Data on whether the patient had already been prescribed
antibiotics for the current episode of infection have been collected
for the last 18 months of surveillance. Data are available for
932 episodes of disease. In 87, patients have failed out-patient
antibiotics: 35 treated with macrolides (57% of whom had a macrolide
resistant isolate), 28 treated with penicillins or cephalosporins
(24% of whom had an isolate with reduced susceptibility to penicillin),
20 treated with fluoroquinolones (25% of whom had isolates resistant
to levofloxacin), and 4 with other antibiotics. Twenty percent
of patients treated with levofloxacin who are subsequently admitted
have a levofloxacin resistant isolate.