A Clinical Solution to Antimicrobial Resistance in Community-Acquired Pneumonia: Narrowing the Spectrum of Antimicrobial Therapy: Comment on “Current and Potential Usefulness of Pneumococcal Urinary Antigen Detection in Hospitalized Patients With Community-Acquired Pneumonia to Guide Antimicrobial Therapy”

For several generations, infectious disease specialists have sounded a clarion warning of impending antimicrobial agent resistance. That forewarning has been fulfilled for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Streptococcus pneumoniae, the leading pathogen in CAP, has become resistant to the penicillins (in vitro), macrolides, and quinolones. The well-publicized nonavailability of new antimicrobial agents aggravates this ominous trend. The pharmaceutical industry has been reluctant to invest large sums of money to overcome the hurdles of academic institutional review boards and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).