A total of 205 isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae obtained from 10 different centres were included in this study. The susceptibilities to penicillin, ampicillin, amoxicillin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, cefaclor, cefuroxime, cefotaxime, imipenem, ciprofloxacin, gemifloxacin, grepafloxacin, levofloxacin, trovafloxacin, erythromycin, clarithromycin, miocamycin, clindamycin and tetracycline were determined by a microdilution technique following NCCLS recommendations. Decreased susceptibility to penicillin was 16.1% [6.8% intermediate (0.12-1 microgram/mL) and 9.3% high-level (> or = 2 micrograms/mL)], cefotaxime insusceptibility (> or = 1 microgram/mL) 12.7%, ciprofloxacine insusceptibility (> or = 2 micrograms/mL) 15.6% with 1.5% of high level resistance (> or = 4 micrograms/mL), erythromycin insusceptibility (> or = 0.5 microgram/mL) 36.1% and tetracycline insusceptibility (> or = 4 micrograms/mL) 22.9%. Decreased susceptibility to cefotaxime was found in 78.8% of the penicillin-insusceptible isolates. No decreased susceptibility was found for gemifloxacin (> or = 0.5 microgram/mL) and trovafloxacin (> or = 1 microgram/mL). Compared to the 1996-1997 surveillance, penicillin, cefotaxime and erythromycin insusceptibility rose by 3.8%, 5.2% and 5.0% respectively, while tetracycline insusceptibility decreased with 8.2%. MICs of all beta-lactams rose with those of penicillin for penicillin-insusceptible isolates. Amoxicillin +/- clavulanate, cefotaxime and imipenem were generally 1, 1 and 5 doubling dilutions respectively more potent than penicillin on these isolates. Penicillin, ampicillin and cefuroxime were equally active while cefaclor was generally 5 dilutions less potent. Most penicillin-insusceptible isolates remained fully susceptible to amoxicillin +/- clavulanate and imipenem. The penicillin-insusceptible isolates were 36.4%, 27.3% and 3.0% co-insusceptible to erythromycin, erythromycin plus tetracycline and tetracycline respectively. A subpopulation of 52 isolates obtained from children aged < or = 3 years was also studied. Compared to the other isolates we found a statistically significant increase in insusceptibility for penicillin, cefaclor, cefuroxime, erythromycin, clarithromycin and tetracycline while a significant decrease was found for ciprofloxacin.