ABSTRACT
Data about the carriage rate and antibiotic resistance pattern in the common respiratory pathogens Streptococcuspneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis is variable from country to the other. The aim of our study was to evaluate these data in our country. It was found that the carriage rate is higher in children attending daycare centers; S.pneumoniae was the most commonly isolated organism followed by M.catarrhalis and finally H.influenzae. Penicillin resistant S.pneumoniae was discovered in 57 percent of positive cases, Beta-lactamase producing M.catarrhalis was also discovered in about 50 percent of isolates. Resistance to penicillin in S.pneumoniae isolates led to a higher rate of resistance to other antibiotics as well such as Cefotaxime, Azithromycin and Co-trimoxazole. It is to be noted that resistance to various antibiotics differed from one country to the other