Pneumococcal Pneumonia Treated with Antibiotics

SINCE the introduction of antibacterial agents effective against the pneumococcus, there has been a definite decrease in mortality in pneumococcal pneumonia—from approximately 30 per cent in the era before specific treatment, to about 5 per cent in the antibiotic era.1 Despite these improvements, however, many patients still die of the disease, and others have an unusually slow and complicated convalescence. It is important, therefore, to study clinical findings in fatal and prolonged nonfatal cases with an unfavorable outcome.It has been well established that certain clinical findings have prognostic significance in nonspecifically treated pneumococcal pneumonia. Heffron2 collected data from large . . .