Marilynn Marchione, Chicago: A vaccine that has dramatically curbed pneumonia and other serious illnesses in children is also having an unfortunate effect: promoting new superbugs that cause ear infections.

On Monday, doctors reported discovering the first such germ that is resistant to all drugs approved to treat childhood ear infections.

Nine toddlers in Rochester, New York, have had the germ and researchers say it may be turning up elsewhere, too.

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It is a strain of strep bacteria not included in the pneumococcal vaccine, Wyeth's Prevnar, which came on the U.S. market in 2000.

It is recommended for children under age 2. A different pneumonia vaccine has long been available for adults but it does not work in children, so Prevnar was hailed as a breakthrough.

It is used in dozens of countries and had sales of more than $1.5 billion (?1.1 billion) last year. In the United States, it is given as four shots between 2 months and 15 months.

Doctors say parents should continue to have their toddlers get the shots because the vaccine prevents serious illness and even saves lives.

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But the new resistant strep is a worry. "The best way to prevent these resistant infections from spreading is to be careful about how we use antibiotics," said Dr. Cynthia Whitney, chief of respiratory diseases at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Avoiding antibiotics when they are not needed is the best way to ensure they will work when they are, she said.

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Prevnar prevents seven strains responsible for most cases of pneumonia, meningitis and deadly bloodstream infections.

But dozens more strep strains exist, and some have flourished and become impervious to antibiotics since the vaccine combats the more common strains.