Abstract
Community-acquired pneumonia remains an important cause of disease and death in both
developed and developing countries and therefore continues to have a major medical
impact. The mortality remains high despite the ready availability of potent antimicrobial
agents to which the organisms are susceptible. However, management of these infections
is potentially complicated by the emerging resistance of many of the common pathogens
to the different classes of antibiotics that are usually prescribed. Furthermore,
it is also being recognized that antibiotic resistance or treatment failures may occur
not only through traditional microbial antibiotic resistance mechanisms but also through
less well defined mechanisms, particularly those developed by the microbes in relation
to their quorum sensing/biofilm machinery. Much recent research in this field has
been focused on evaluating the clinical impact of antibiotic resistance on optimal
antibiotic treatment and antimicrobial choices, as well as alternative strategies
to deal with antibiotic resistance and treatment failures.
Keywords
antibiotic resistance - β-lactam antibiotics - biofilm formation - community-acquired
pneumonia - fluoroquinolones - macrolides - quorum sensing