RT Journal
T1 CHeering news from the antibiotic front
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 1969
FD June 2
VO 208
IS 9
SP 1696
OP 1696
DO 10.1001/jama.1969.03160090056015
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1969.03160090056015
AB Increasing resistance to antibiotics, manifested by Staphylococcus aureus in the 1950's, dissipated some of the high hopes which followed initial successes of antibiotic therapy during the previous decade. Not only did this resistance cause therapeutic frustration, but it also created a danger of cross-infection by antibiotic-resistant staphylococci. "Hospital staphylococcus" became a serious hazard to patients hospitalized for noninfectious as well as for infectious conditions. The reported prevalence of penicillin-resistant and tetracycline-resistant staphlylococcal infection on the wards of Hammersmith Hospital, London was 70% in October 1957.1 Only 12% of the organisms were sensitive to all antibiotics tested, including penicillin.Wallmark and Finland2 found a positive relation between the proportion of antibiotic-resistant strains of staphylococci and the length of hospitalization of patients from whom they were obtained. Conceding the possibility that occasionally an organism sensitive to an antibiotic could in time become resistant to it, these investigators attributed the increased