Appearance of resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics during therapy for Streptococcus pneumoniae meningitis.

A young boy had meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae that was relatively resistant to penicillin and susceptible to cefotaxime. After 10 days of therapy with penicillin and cefotaxime, fever recurred and a second lumbar puncture revealed a pneumococcus that was resistant to all beta-lactam antibiotics. We now add vancomycin to empiric third-generation cephalosporin therapy for meningitis in children when gram-positive cocci are seen on the cerebrospinal fluid smear.