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Frequencies of pneumococcal types causing serious infections in patients admitted to the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, 1969–77

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

D. C. Turk
D. C. Turk
Affiliation:
Bacteriology Department and Regional Public Health Laboratory, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford OX2 6HE*
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Summary

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During a 7½ year period pneumococci were isolated from body fluids of 124 patients at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford – 72 with pneumonia, 26 with meningitis and 26 with other serious infections. Eighty-one (65%) of the patients were over 50, and 33 (27%) were over 70 years old. Of the 124 pneumococcal strains 104 (84%), including 23 (79%) of those from patients who died, belonged to types included in the vaccines successfully used in South Africa and in Papua New Guinea. The relative frequencies of types in the Oxford series and in a larger British series agreed closely with those found in a recent survey of 3644 bacteraemic pneumococcal infections in 10 American cities. Any polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine licensed for use in the United States is thus likely to be relevant to the situation in Britain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , October 1978 , pp. 227 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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