JAC Advance Access originally published online on March 29, 2007
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2007 59(5):825-826; doi:10.1093/jac/dkm059
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Best in class: a good principle for antibiotic usage to limit resistance development?
1 Centre for Infectious Diseases, University of Edinburgh, Chancellor's Building, 49 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh EH16 4SB, Scotland, UK 2 Department of Clinical Microbiology, Trinity College, St. James's Hospital, James's Street, Dublin 8, Ireland 3 Division of Infectious Diseases, Children's Hospital & Health Center, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
* Corresponding author. Tel: +44-131-242-6652; E-mail: s.g.b.amyes{at}ed.ac.uk
The causes of antibiotic resistance are often complex and it is difficult to identify strategies to prevent or delay its emergence. One strategy has been to use less active members of a drug class, so that when resistance develops the more active members will still prevail. This stratagem may often fail because this resistance may form the basis of resistance to the whole class. Often, less active drugs are the first to be discovered and more active versions follow, so we have had no choice; however, increasingly less active drugs are available to deal with specific infections and this may have a detrimental effect on the class as a whole.
Keywords: antimicrobial management , therapy , carbapenems
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A. J. Brink, C. Feldman, and G. A. Richards Comment on: Best in class: a good principle for antibiotic usage to limit resistance development? J. Antimicrob. Chemother., October 1, 2007; 60(4): 901 - 901. [Full Text] [PDF] |
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S. G. B. Amyes Best in class: a good principle for antibiotic usage to limit resistance development? author's response J. Antimicrob. Chemother., October 1, 2007; 60(4): 901 - 902. [Full Text] [PDF] |
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