Is penicillin effective in treatment of pneumonia?
When it was introduced, penicillin was extremely effective in the treatment of pneumonias. However, over the last fifty years, bacteria have developed immunity and resistance to the effects of penicillin. Penicillin is still very effective in the treatment of pneumonias caused by Streptoccus Pneumoniae. However, as with most other bacterias resistance is developing in this strain as well. Generally, we do not use plain penicillin in pneumonia due to the resistance to this drug. However, we occaisionally use penicillin once the bacteria has been shown to be sensitive to the drug in the microbiology laboratory.
