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JAC Advance Access published online on March 29, 2007
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, doi:10.1093/jac/dkm059
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Leading article

Best in class: a good principle for antibiotic usage to limit resistance development?

Sebastian G. B. Amyes1,*, Fiona M. Walsh2 and John S. Bradley3

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.

Key Words: antimicrobial management , therapy , carbapenems


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 J Antimicrob ChemotherHome page
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]

Home page
 J Antimicrob ChemotherHome page
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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