| Description |
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a bacterium that causes serious disease in humans,
setting has been created to identify ALL culture positive isolates of
Streptococcus pneumoniae from any specimen site in any patient/client receiving
care within the VHA.
Note: Even specimens that have been obtained from patients (not the
environment) as part of an epidemiologic prevalence study or survey should be
included if they are present in the VistA laboratory package results from your
site.
The results from this EPI pathogen setting will be coupled with the results
from Reference #3 (Penicillin-Resistant Pneumococcus) to help determine the
percentage of all isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae that have penicillin
including pneumonia, bacteremia, meningitis and even death. It is an important
resistance.
pathogen to monitor in that many of the more serious sequelae of infection may
be ameliorated with preventive vaccination. As with many other organisms that
cause disease in humans, resistance to antibiotics is emerging in this S.
pneumoniae. The presence of antibiotic resistance creates a challenge in
treatment of infections with this organism. In order to determine the
prevalence of antibiotic resistance, a baseline of occurrence of ALL
Streptococcus pneumoniae needs to be obtained. This particular EPI pathogen
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