Pneumococcal infections at a rural tertiary care hospital: a seven year study on isolation rate, clinical spectrum and antibiogram.

Background: Invasive pneumococcal infections such as pneumonia, bacteraemia and meningitis are severe and often fatal. In recent years, pneumococcal resistance to penicillin has been a problem in many countries. We, in this retrospective study analysed the case records of culture proven pneumococcal infections seen over a period of seven at a rural tertiary health care centre in Karnataka and studied the antibiotic resistance pattern of the isolates.