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Alcoholics Should Get Pneumococcal Vaccine

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 May 2006, 15:00 CDT

Current or former alcoholics have a high risk for Streptococcus pneumonia, a bacteria that can cause pneumonia, find researchers in Spain and Germany.

The researchers compared the etiology, antibiotic resistance of S pneumonia, severity and outcome of patients with alcohol abuse vs. non-alcoholics hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia.

Among patients, 128 were current alcoholics, 54 former alcoholics and 1,165 non-alcoholics. Results indicated that patients with a history of alcohol abuse had the highest incidence of S pneumonia.

Overall, 27 percent of alcoholics, 30 percent of former alcoholics and 16 percent of non-alcoholics developed S pneumonia, according to the study published in Chest.

Alcoholic patients presented more severe forms of community-acquired pneumonia, but no significant differences were found in mortality, antibiotic resistance of S pneumonia and other etiologies, according to the researchers at the Servi de Pneumologia Institute del Torax and the University of Barcelona.

The findings support the need to promote pneumococcal vaccination in patients with a history of alcoholism, the researchers said.

Source: United Press International

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