Emerging resistance to antibiotics against respiratory bacteria: impact on therapy of community-acquired pneumonia in children

Perhaps because of its etiologic complexity, community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in infants and children remains a significant problem worldwide. Over the last few years, difficulties related to CAP treatment in children have greatly increased because of the emergence of resistance to the most widely used antibiotics against some of the bacterial pathogens involved in the development of the disease. There are few data describing the impact of antibiotic resistance on clinical outcomes in CAP, but many experts believe that the clinical impact is limited. We here discuss the prevalence of different etiologic agents in CAP of children, the diagnostic criteria, problems related to antibiotic resistance, therapeutic strategies, and future implications. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.