General texts
Since the availability and use of antimicrobial agents vary widely in different countries, no one book has universal applicability. Among the most authoritative general texts in the English language are:
Bryskier A. Antimicrobial agents—antibacterial and antifungals. ASM Press, Washington, 2005.
Finch RG, Greenwood D, Norrby SR, Whitley RJ. Antibiotic and chemotherapy: anti-infective agents and their use in therapy, 8th edn. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 2003.
Kucers A, Crowe SM, Grayson ML, Hoy JF. The use of antibiotics: a clinical review of antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral drugs, 5th edn. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 1997.
An indispensable guide to the use of all therapeutic drugs for practitioners in the UK is provided by:
British National Formulary. British Medical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (revised twice yearly). Also available as an electronic version at http://bnf.org/bnf
Comprehensive monographs on antimicrobial agents are to be found in large reference texts on drugs including:
Dollery C (ed.). Therapeutic drugs (2nd edn). Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1999.
Sweetman SC (ed.). Martindale: the complete drug reference (34th edn). Pharmaceutical Press, London, 2004. (Also available online.)
Other useful texts on specific topics
Antiviral agents and the chemotherapy of viral infections
Butera ST (ed.). HIV Chemotherapy: a critical review. Horizon Bioscience, Norwich, 2005.
Challand R, Young RJ. Antiviral Chemotherapy. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997.
Driscoll JS. Antiviral Drugs. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2005.
Galasso GJ, Whitley RJ, Merigan TC (eds.). Antiviral Agents and Human Viral Diseases, (4th edn). Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, MD, 1997.
Diseases caused by protozoa and helminths (see also WHO publications below)
Aden Abdi Y, Gustafsson LL, Ericsson O, Hellgren U (eds.). Handbook of Drugs for Tropical Parasitic Infection, (2nd edn). Taylor and Francis, London, 1996.
Campbell WC, Rew RS (eds.). Chemotherapy of Parasitic Diseases. Plenum Press, New York, 1986.
James DM, Gilles HM. Human Antiparasitic Drugs: pharmacology and usage. Wiley, Chichester, 1985.
Rosenthal PJ. Antimalarial Chemotherapy: mechanisms of action, resistance, and new directions in drug discovery. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ, 2001.
Mode of action of antimicrobial agents and mechanisms of resistance
Franklin TJ, Snow GA. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Antimicrobial Drug Action, (6th edn). Springer-Verlag, New York, 2005.
Harrison J, Lederberg J (eds.). Antimicrobial Resistance: issues and options. National Academy Press, Washington, 1998.
Richman DD (ed.). Antiviral Drug Resistance. Wiley, Chichester, 1996.
Salyers AA, Whitt DD. Revenge of the Microbes: how bacterial resistance is undermining the antibiotic miracle. ASM Press, 2005.
Scholar EM, Pratt WB. The Antimicrobial Drugs, (2nd edn). Oxford University Press, New York, 2000.
Standing Medical Advisory Committee Report. The Path of Least Resistance. Department of Health/Public Health Laboratory Service, London, 1998.
Walsh C. Antibiotics: Actions, origins, resistance. ASM Press, Washington, 2003.
White DG, Alekshun MN, McDermott PF. Frontiers in Antimicrobial Resistance. A tribute to Stuart B Levy. ASM Press, 2005.
Laboratory methods
Lorian V (ed.). Antibiotics in Laboratory Medicine, (5th edn). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, MD, 2005.
Reeves DS, Wise R, Andrews JM, White LO (eds.). Clinical Antimicrobial Assays. British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999.
Antibiotic resistance monitoring
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia. Antibiotic/antimicrobial resistance. http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/index.htm
European Union: European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System. http://www.earss.rivm.nl. The website has links to various national and international networks.
UK and Ireland: British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy resistance surveillance. http://www.bsacsurv.org
Surveillance of antibiotic prescribing
European surveillance of antimicrobial consumption. http://www.esac.ua.ac.be/main.aspx?c=*ESAC2&n=21600. The website has publications from the project, which has collected and published data about community and hospital use of antibiotics across Europe from 1997. There are links to various national and international networks.
Learning resources about antimicrobial chemotherapy
The APT Project: appropriate prescribing for tomorrows' doctors. http://www.dundee.ac.uk/facmedden/APT/. The website has learning resources (clinical problems and prescribing exercises) created by medical schools in the UK with the aim of teaching prudent use of antibiotics in all clinical contexts.
WHO publications
The World Health Organization issues a wide variety of publications many of which are available on-line through the website http://www.who.int/. Of particular relevance to antimicrobial chemotherapy are:
Crompton DWT, Montresor A, Nesheim MC, Savioli L. Controlling Disease due to Helminth Infections. 2004.
Frieden T. Toman's Tuberculosis. Case Detection, Treatment and Monitoring, (2nd edn), 2004. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2004/9241546034.pdf
Mehta DK, Ryan RSM, Hogerzeil H. WHO Model formulary. 2004. http://mednet3.who.int/EMLib/wmf.aspx
WHO Essential Drug Monitor. http://www.who.int/medicines/publications/monitor/en
WHO Global malaria programme. http://malaria.who.int
WHO Global strategy for containment of antimicrobial resistance. http://www.who.int/drugresistance/en/
WHO Guidelines for the treatment of malaria. http://www.who.int/malaria/docs/TreatmentGuidelines2006.pdf
WHO Model Prescribing Information: Drugs used in parasitic diseases, (2nd edn). 1995.
WHO. TB/HIV: a clinical manual, (2nd edn). 2004. http://www.who.int/tb/publications/who_htm_tb_2004_329/en/index.html
Journals
Papers dealing with aspects of the use of antimicrobial drugs appear in numerous journals. English language journals specifically devoted to antibiotics and antimicrobial therapy include:
Antibiotics and Chemotherapy
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
Antiviral Chemistry and Chemotherapy
Antiviral Research
Chemotherapy
International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents
Journal of Antibiotics
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
Journal of Chemotherapy.