Rapid Responses to:

CLINICAL REVIEW: Joumana N Samaha-Kfoury and George F Araj Recent developments in lactamases and extended spectrum lactamases BMJ 2003; 327: 1209-1213 [Full text]

Rapid Responses: Submit a response to this article

Rapid Responses published:

More information on antibiotics would be helpful

Fredric M Steinberg   (1 December 2003)

More information on antibiotics would be helpful 1 December 2003
Fredric M Steinberg, Clinical Research Physician, MSD MSD, Hoddesdon Road, Hoddesdon, Herts, EN11 9BU Send response to journal: Re: More information on antibiotics would be helpful	The 22 November article on ß-lactamases is timely and informative as antibiotic resistance continues to grow. Table 2 has a good summary of currently used antibiotics and their modes of action, but has omitted several newer classes of antibiotics. These include the oxazolidinones (linezolid), the newer streptogramins (dalfopristin/quinupristin), and under development, the ketolides (telithromycin), the lipopeptides (daptomycin), and the second generation glycopeptides (oritavancin, dalbavacin). In addition, a discussion of the use of high dose penicillin to overcome bacterial resistance¹² in particular cases would have been helpful. 1. Woolverton CJ, Huebert K, Burkhart B, MacPhee M. Subverting bacterial resistance using high dose, low solubility antibiotics in fibrin. Infection. 1999 Jan-Feb;27(1):28-33. 2. Gilbert DN, Moellering RC, Sande MA. Sanford guide to antimicrobial therapy. © 2002, p 56. Competing interests: None declared