Question: The patient has a staphylococcal infection of the blood, a septicemia very serious and possibly d…

The patient has a staphylococcal infection of the blood, a
septicemia very serious and possibly deadly. As the doctor, you
would like to prescribe a relatively non-toxic and inexpensive drug
out of the cephalosporin family. However if the patient harbors a
strain of Staphylococcus that is resistant to variety of
antibiotics, you would prefer to use vancomycin which is highly
effective against Staphylococcus. Which of the following explains
why the cephalosporin drug is preferred for use over the
vancomycin?

A.You would rather give an inexpensive drug to save the family
money.

B. You really do not know that much about vancomycin, so you
would rather go with a drug that you can find out more about.

C. Vancomycin is very toxic, and the Staphylococcus strain could
become resistant leaving no back-up drugs with which to treat the
infection.

D. Vancomycin is one of the most selectively toxic drugs there
is, so you would prefer one that has a more broad-spectrum
effect.