ABSTRACT
A retrospective analysis of culture-positive cases of S pneumoniae from normally sterile body fluids is reported. Over 40 percent of patients were 5 years old or less while 28 percent of patients were 50 years old or more. Meningitis (44 percent) was the commonest clinical presentation followed closely by pneumonia (31 percent). The commonest predisposing disorder was human immunodeficiency virus infection though there were no identifiable risk factors in the majority of patients. Mortality from invasive pneumococcal disease was significantly higher in elderly patients compared with other age groups (p=0.0003). In this study, all S pneumoniae isolates, for which there were antibiotic sensitivity data, were penicillin and/or amoxycillin sensitive.