[Pneumococcal sepsis in aged patients - implications for the vaccination of seniors against pneumococci]

Abstract

In the years 2005-2010 pneumococci were isolated in the Limbach laboratory/Heidelberg from blood cultures of 1,085 patients. Obviously, older patients are more prone to these bacteria, since 66 % of the patients were older than 60 years. All isolates were susceptible to cefotaxime; 3 % of isolates were resistant to penicillin, 2 % were resistant to levofloxacin and 15 % were resistant to erythromycin. From 457 out of the isolates serotyping was achieved: more than 80 % of the isolates were covered by the 23-valent vaccine. This means that particularly old people should be vaccinated against pneumococci, because they will profit probably most from such preventive measurements.