Sulfonamides really cover more infectious territory than most other antibiotics. Besides the more common bacterial species, they are active against many ‘special’ pathogens, like S. maltophilia, P. jiroveci, Listeria, Nocardia,, C. burneti (Q-fever), and T. whipplei (Whipple’s disease). Not to forget their use in malaria, toxoplasmosis, melioidosis, cyclospora, and atypical mycobacterial infections.
Then there is brucellosis and paracoccidioidomycosis.Paracocci? Yes. South American blastomycosis is often treated with sulfa medications, with equal efficacy as seen with itraconazole.
So, with P. jiroveci, this is yet another fungal infections for which to consider sulfonamides. Amazingly, sulfonamide derivatives have also shown activity against more common fungi like Candida, Aspergillus, and even Fusarium [1]. However, these compounds are still at the lab stage.
[1] Chohan. Transition Met Chem (2009) 34:153–161
