Comment Re:We can develop new antibiotics... (Score 1) 62
From that link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
6 major classes of antibiotics in this group alone. Unless you are really picky and count Gentamicin and Doxycycline in the same class; having had both the difference is noticeable and cross-resistance is not too high.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Five or more classes, depending on how you divide things up. Sure, beta-lactams cover a huge range, but the cross resistance between Penams and Cephalosporin/Cephamycin is usually pretty low. Then the big guns like Vancomycin in a class of it's own, and the carbapenems somewhere in-between.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Several more classes here. The whole Sulpha family of antibiotics, the whole quinolone group (maybe there is a split between the fluoro- and the non-fluoro-, I haven't had much experience with the non-fluoro group), the two nitro: furan and imidazole, and the rifamycin family.
All said, there are a lot more drugs out there. Many aren't used because of the side-effects or because they are held back for last resort use. There is also the massive problem of penicillin and sulpha allergies, though some studies have shown that many cases of childhood allergic response to penicillin is a one-time thing and the drugs can be useful later in life. The whole Oxazolidinone family is full of active research, the problems with Linezolid is that it is a strong MAOI; hugh number of side effects and interactions with other drugs, and foods. Wiki sites that it is popular now because patients can be switched from IV to oral sooner, since Linezolid is available in an oral form; but that pill form was very expensive ten years ago when I had to pay $1000 for two 500mg pills, which made the stuff something like 18 times the cost of gold or somewhere near the by-weight-cost of inkjet ink.
And then there is the 5th generation cephalosporin drugs, a few being useful against pseudomonas and klebsiella (notoriously limited in the drugs they even respond to) as well as staph A. even when it is MRSA.
So, there is a lot of cutting edge research and new drugs out there. Unfortunately, not all of them are available in the USA right now.