famethoxazole remains a popular antibiotic because of its low cost, effectiveness and familiarity among clinicians. It is the most frequently prescribed antibiotic for urinary tract infections in Canada. Other indications include treatment of infections caused by Pneumocystis jiroveci, Toxoplasma gondii, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus ...

We noted with interest the paper by Forgacs et al. (2) reporting on a case of tuberculosis with an apparent response to treatment with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) and the subsequent in vitro studies indicating that the majority of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains may be susceptible to TMP-SMX. As the Forgacs paper implied that it is the sulfonamide component of TMP-SMX that has an...

We describe a case of a 50-year-old Hispanic man diagnosed with HIV/AIDS who presented with a generalized tonic clonic seizure and ring enhancing cerebral lesions on imaging. He was initially treated for CNS toxoplasmosis but presented to the hospital with another tonic clonic seizure despite prescribed therapy. Brain biopsy was performed which revealed Nocardia beijingensis. He was treated wit...

Azithromycin and clarithromycin were paired with other antibiotics to test synergistic activity against 300 multidrug-resistant pathogens isolated from cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Clarithromycin-tobramycin was most active against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and inhibited 58% of strains. Azithromycin-trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, azithromycin-ceftazidime, and azithromycin-doxycycline or azithromy...

It is impossible to test accurately bacterial susceptibility to the trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole combination co-trimoxazole with a single combined susceptibility disk. However, a variety of factors still affect the result even when separate trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole disks are used. Experiments with separate disks showed that the optimum conditions for testing the susceptibilities of en...

The effect of combinations of gentamicin with trimethoprim or sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim against clinical isolates of Escherichia coli (11 strains) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (12 strains) was examined by using a microdilution checkerboard technique. All isolates were susceptible to each antimicrobial agent. Synergism, defined as at least a 2-log(2)-dilution lowering of the minimal inhibitory ...

Using a rapid screening method, we investigated the prevalence of fecal carriage of antimicrobial drug-resistant Escherichia coli in 3,174 healthy children from 4 urban settings in Peru and Bolivia. High resistance rates were observed for ampicillin (95%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (94%), tetracycline (93%), streptomycin (82%), and chloramphenicol (70%). Lower resistance rates were observed...

Sulfa drugs are widely used in the prophylaxis and treatment of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Co-trimoxasole, the first-line agent, is a combination of sulfamethoxazole plus trimethoprim but functions as sulfa monotherapy since trimethoprim appears to be inactive. Dapsone, a sulfone, is a commonly used second line agent. Both sulfamethoxazole and dapsone act by binding to the dihydropteroate ...

Activities of clinafloxacin, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, sparfloxacin, trovafloxacin, piperacillin, piperacillin-tazobactam, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, ceftazidime, and imipenem against 354 ciprofloxacin-susceptible and -intermediate-resistant organisms were tested by agar dilution. Clinafloxacin yielded the lowest quinolone MICs (< or = 0.5 microg/ml against ciprofloxacin-susceptible orga...

Twenty-five plasmid-specified antimicrobial resistance determinants common to gram-negative bacilli from nosocomial infection were investigated from 31 Stenotrophomonas maltophilia isolates. Twenty-four clones were identified by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and in three clones that exhibited an increased trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole MIC, the sul1 determinant was found. These results suppo...