Bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia in adults admitted to a general hospital. Experience in 60 cases

Bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia (BPP) is a preventable disease with high morbimortality. To evaluate clinical aspects and mortality on BPP patients admitted to a Chilean regional hospital. We looked for adult patients with Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from blood cultures between 2010 and 2014 years and reviewed clinical records of those who were admitted with pneumonia. We identified 70 BPP patients: 58% were men, mean age was 56 years, 30% were > 65 years, 70% with basic public health insurance, 26% were alcoholics, 86% had comorbidities. Only two patients were vaccinated against S. pneumoniae. CURB-65 severity index for community acquired pneumonia was > 3 in 37% of patients. Twenty-four patients were admitted to ICU, twenty required mechanical ventilation and twenty-four died (34%). Mortality was associated with an age over 65 years, presence of comorbidities and complications of pneumonia. A total of 22 serotypes of S. pneumoniae were identified, five of them (1,3,7F,14 y 9V) were present in 57% of cases. Elevated mortality of our BNN patients was associated with comorbidities and possibly with socio economic factors, which conditioned a late access to medical care.