Antibiotics need a breakpoint if they have a special, new mechanism of action or a spectrum of activity that is different from other antibiotics. They may not need a breakpoint if the mechanism of antibiotic activity (and resistance) is the same as other antibiotics. Care must be taken to achieve the right dose of antibiotic.
Presenter: Professor. Sören Gatermann
Professor Dr. Gatermann is head of the Department of Clinical Microbiology at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, head of the German National Reference Laboratory for Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacteria and medical director of the Institute for Medical Laboratory Diagnostics GmbH, Bochum. His research interests are virulence factors, surface proteins and pathogenicity of staphylococci and quality management in the clinical microbiology laboratory. He has been a member of the EUCAST Steering Committee since 2013.