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The increasing number of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates identified as relatively or fully resistant to penicillin or fully resistant to other antimicrobials in the United States supports the need to monitor for this resistance. Thus, 5459 S. pneumoniae isolates submitted to the Centers for Disease Control in 1979-1987 by 35 hospitals in a hospital-based pneumococcal surveillance system were evaluated. The MIC to penicillin or ampicillin was greater than or equal to 0.1 micrograms/ml for 274 (5%) isolates; 1 had an MIC of 4.0 micrograms/ml to penicillin. Seventeen (0.3%) were resistant to erythromycin (MIC, greater than or equal to 8 micrograms/ml), 157 (2.9%) were resistant to tetracycline (MIC, greater than or equal to 16 micrograms/ml), and 34 (0.6%) were resistant to sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (MIC, greater than or equal to 76 and 4 micrograms/ml). Isolates relatively resistant to penicillin represented 1.8% of isolates in 1979, 8% in 1982, and 3.6% in 1987. Sixty-five multiply resistant isolates were identified. Pneumococci from the southwestern United States (region 4) were more likely to be relatively resistant to penicillin. Using logistic regression analysis, serotypes 14 and 19A, isolates from region 4, and isolates from middle ear fluid were associated with penicillin resistance (P less than or equal to .008, chi 2. These data confirm that antimicrobial resistance among pneumococcal isolates remained at low levels in the United States through 1987.

To determine risk factors for neonatal group B streptococcal (GBS) disease, a cohort study was conducted in Atlanta of infants with invasive GBS disease during 1982 and 1983. Laboratory review detected 71 infants with early-onset disease (1.09 cases/1000 live births) and 37 infants with late-onset disease (0.57 cases/1000 live births). Compared with the 64,858 births in Atlanta in the same period, infants with early-onset GBS disease were more often black, less than 2500 g, and born to teenage mothers. A history of miscarriage increased a woman's risk of delivering an infant with early-onset disease. Black infants had 35 times the risk of late-onset disease that nonblack infants had. Thirty percent of early-onset disease and 92% of late-onset disease could be attributed to black race, independent of other risk factors. Most case-mothers (96%) received prenatal care, suggesting that prevention strategies such as prenatal screening or maternal immunization could reach nearly all the population at risk.

IMPORTANCEElectronic directly observed therapy (DOT) is used increasingly as an alternative to in-person DOT for monitoring tuberculosis treatment. Evidence supporting its efficacy is limited. OBJECTIVE To determine whether electronic DOT can attain a level of treatment observation as favorable as in-person DOT. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This was a 2-period crossover, noninferiority trial with initial randomization to electronic or in-person DOT at the time outpatient tuberculosis treatment began. The trial enrolled 216 participants with physician-suspected or bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis from July 2017 to October 2019 in 4 clinics operated by the New York City Health Department. Data analysis was conducted between March 2020 and April 2021. INTERVENTIONS Participants were asked to complete 20 medication doses using 1 DOT method, then switched methods for another 20 doses. With in-person therapy, participants chose clinic or community-based DOT; with electronic DOT, participants chose live video-conferencing or recorded videos. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Difference between the percentage of medication dosesparticipants were observed to completely ingest with in-person DOT and with electronic DOT.Noninferiority was demonstrated if the upper 95% confidence limit of the difference was 10% or less. We estimated the percentage of completed doses using a logistic mixed effects model, run in 4 modes: modified intention-to-treat, per-protocol, per-protocol with 85% or more of doses conforming to the randomization assignment, and empirical. Confidence intervals were estimated by bootstrapping (with 1000 replicates). RESULTSThere were 173 participants in each crossover period (median age, 40 years [range, 16-86 years]; 140 [66%] men; 80 [37%] Asian and Pacific Islander, 43 [20%] Black, and 71 [33%] Hispanic individuals) evaluated with the model in the modified intention-to-treat analytic mode. The percentage of completed doses with in-person DOT was 87.2% (95% CI, 84.6%-89.9%) vs 89.8%(95% CI, 87.5%-92.1%) with electronic DOT. The percentage difference was −2.6% (95% CI, −4.8% to −0.3%), consistent with a conclusion of noninferiority. The 3 other analytic modes yielded equivalent conclusions, with percentage differences ranging from −4.9% to −1.9%. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEIn this trial, the percentage of completed doses under electronic DOT was noninferior to that under in-person DOT. This trial provides evidence supporting the (continued) Key Points Question Is electronic directly observed therapy (DOT) noninferior to in-person DOT in supporting medication adherence for tuberculosis treatment? Findings In this randomized, 2-period crossover noninferiority trial of 216 patients with tuberculosis, the modified intention-to-treat analysis estimate of the percentage of medication doses staff observed patients ingest with in-person DOT was 87.2% vs 89.8% with electronic DOT. The percentage difference between DOT methods was −2.6%, which was less than the noninferiority margin of 10% at a statistically sign...

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