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\nBacterial infections are common in nursing homes and day care centers where bacteria can pass easily among people. Personal contact in these settings is very common and difficult to control; outbreaks of a bacterial infection occur easily. The bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae (often called pneumococcus) causes many common infections like pneumonia and ear infections. It is a leading cause of illness and death in the U.S. each year.
\nAntibiotics are generally used to combat bacterial infections like pneumococcus. But because antibiotic use is so common (sometimes inappropriately prescribed) in both young and elderly populations, their care centers are often ideal settings for drug-resistant strains of pneumococcus to emerge. Between 10% and 40% of pneumococcus infections are drug resistant. Drug-resistant pneumococcal infections have been rising steadily over the past decade, and infection with a drug-resistant strain of pneumococcus can result in serious illness or death if the drug-resistance is not diagnosed soon enough.
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\nIn the past, pneumococcus infections could be cured with penicillin. But penicillin-resistant and multi-drug resistant strains of pneumococcus are emerging in the U. S. and are widespread in some groups of people. When bacteria become resistant to antibiotic drugs, treatment options diminish; what once were easily treated diseases can become more serious, even deadly.
\nThe very young and the very old, who are often in day care and nursing homes, are at greatest risk for infections when outbreaks occur. People who work and live in nursing homes and children and workers in day care centers can develop antibiotic-resistant pneumococcus infections. Frequent use of antibiotic medications also puts people at risk for drug-resistant pneumococcus. Estimates are that every year pneumococcus causes 7 million cases of otitis media (ear infection) in children; 100,000 \u2013 135,000 hospitalizations for pneumonia; 50,000 cases of bloodstream infection; and 3,000 cases of meningitis. Socioeconomic and other factors contribute to a high number of new cases each year among African American and American Indian populations.
\nYes, drug-resistant outbreaks can be prevented or reduced with careful use of antibiotics, and pneumococcus infections can be prevented with a vaccine.
\nAntibiotics cannot cure a cold, the flu, or bronchitis because these diseases are caused by viruses, not bacteria. People prescribed an antibiotic should follow the instructions carefully and take all of the antibiotic even if they begin feeling better before the medicine is finished.
\nVaccines are often underused in nursing homes because many doctors do not see pneumonia as a problem or may not believe the vaccine is effective. Physicians may mistakenly believe that repeated vaccination is harmful, and it is difficult to determine whether a person has already been vaccinated. Only 45% of persons 65 years of age or older have been vaccinated; in most nursing home outbreaks, fewer than 5% of residents had been vaccinated.
\nThe licensed vaccine is not effective for children under age 2. A new, but not yet licensed vaccine has just been tested in a large research study and appears to be highly effective in infants.
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