Preface and Summary

Surveillance studies are an essential tool in the continuing battle against bacterial resistance, providing us with information on where and when resistance first occurs, local changes in resistance patterns over time, the extent to which resistance varies from region to region, and which drugs continue to perform well – or not as well – against these pathogens.This volume summarizes the results of the first three years of the global PROTEKT (Prospective Resistant Organism Tracking and Epidemiology for the Ketolide Telithromycin) surveillance study, covering the period between 1999 and 2002.Among the antibacterial agents monitored during this study is telithromycin, the first of a new group of macrolide-derived antibacterial agents called the ketolides. Telithromycin consistently performed well against most of the pathogens monitored during PROTEKT Years 1-3, including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus. Thanks to its high levels of activity against these pathogens and low potential for resistance development, telithromycin is likely to become an important component in the arsenal against drug-resistant pathogens over the coming years.