Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates in a Beirut general university hospital between 2000 and 2004

Susceptibility patterns of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae collected over a 5-year period in a Beirut general university hospital were studied. Only 40.6-50% of S. pneumoniae isolates were susceptible to penicillin G. Susceptibility to clindamycin and erythromycin decreased from 94.1% and 89.7%, respectively, in 2000 to 75% and 71.9%, respectively, in 2004. All isolates were susceptible to ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin and vancomycin. For H. in fluenzae, no resistance was observed to amoxycillin-clavulanate, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin and rifampicin, with >92% of isolates showing susceptibility to cefuroxime, chloramphenicol, erythromycin and tetracycline. The proportion of beta-lactamase-positive isolates varied between 22.7 and 30.8%.