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Research Article| Volume 30, ISSUE 9, P725-730, September 1945

Penicillin sensitivity of strains of six common pathogens and of hemophilus hemolyticus

  • Manson Meads
    Affiliations
    From the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Second and Fourth Medical Services (Harvard), Boston City Hospital, Boston, Mass., USA

    From the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Boston, Mass., USA
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  • Edwin M. Ory
    Affiliations
    From the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Second and Fourth Medical Services (Harvard), Boston City Hospital, Boston, Mass., USA

    From the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Boston, Mass., USA
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  • Clare Wilcox
    Affiliations
    From the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Second and Fourth Medical Services (Harvard), Boston City Hospital, Boston, Mass., USA

    From the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Boston, Mass., USA
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  • Maxwell Finland
    Affiliations
    From the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Second and Fourth Medical Services (Harvard), Boston City Hospital, Boston, Mass., USA

    From the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Boston, Mass., USA
    Search for articles by this author
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      Abstract

      Tests for sensitivity to commercial penicillin in vitro have been carried out on 240 pathogenic strains of gonococcus, beta and alpha streptococcus, pneumococcus, meningococcus, and staphylococcus and also on twenty-one respiratory strains of H. hemolyticus. There were wide differences in sensitivity among these organisms and among different strains of the same organism.
      The strains of gonococcus and of Group A hemolytic streptococcus were the most sensitive to penicillin and showed the greatest uniformity in that respect. The strains of staphylococcus and meningococcus showed the widest range of sensitivity. Most of the H. hemolyticus strains reacted like the majority of staphylococci and meningococci. The sensitivity of strains of pneumococcus and alpha streptococcus was intermediate between that of beta streptococci and meningococci.
      Resistant strains, which were 256 times more resistant than the reference strain of hemolytic streptococcus, were encountered only among the staphylococci. Relatively insensitive strains, which were from sixteen to sixty-four times more resistant than the reference strain, were found among the staphylococci, meningococci, H. hemolyticus, and alpha streptococci.
      Among the Group A streptococci, pneumococci, and meningococci there was no correlation between the serologic types and penicillin sensitivity. Among the pathogenic staphylococci there was no apparent relation between penicillin sensitivity and the hemolytic or coagulase properties of the different strains.
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