Between February and June 2000, 2345 consecutive strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae were isolated from 2088 adult patients suffering from community-acquired respiratory tract infections, in 97 hospital laboratories. Of the 1037 S. pneumoniae isolates, 48.3% were intermediately or highly penicillin resistant. For invasive isolates, the MIC90s of penicillin G, amoxycillin, cefuroxime, ceftriaxone, erythromycin, ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and moxifloxacin were 2, 2, 4, 0.5, 1024, 2, 2 and 0.25 mg/l, respectively. All but one invasive strain were susceptible to moxifloxacin whereas 97.5% were susceptible to levofloxacin. The MIC90s of clinical isolates with intermediate susceptibility or high resistance to penicillin G, were 2, 2, 4, 1, 1024, 2, 2 and 0.25 mg/l. About 98.1, 97.0, and 83.1% of strains were inhibited by concentrations < or = 1 mg/l of moxifloxacin, levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin, respectively (E-test). Eight of the 1037 S. pneumoniae strains were not susceptible to moxifloxacin and had mutations in gyrA (eight strains), parC (four strains) or parE (three strains). Against H. influenzae (32.7% were beta-lactamase producers) and M. catarrhalis (96.3% were beta-lactamase producers), the MIC90s of moxifloxacin, amoxycillin and co-amoxiclav were 0.094 and 0.125 mg/l, 64 and 8 mg/l, and 1.5 and 0.25 mg/l, respectively. Against oxacillin-susceptible S. aureus and K. pneumoniae, the MIC90s of moxifloxacin were 0.125 and 0.84 mg/l respectively. Moxifloxacin had the highest in vitro activity of all antibiotics tested.
Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. and International Society of Chemotherapy