A single dose of azithromycin is enough to treat cholera in children

According to a study published in November 2002 in the journal Lancet, taking a single dose of azithromycin for cholera in children is not less effective than the 3-day course of erythromycin, and at the same time causes a significant reduction in the duration of diarrhea and less causes vomiting.

A team of researchers led by Dr W.A. Khan of the Dhaka Public Health Center in Bangladesh treated 128 children with cholera accompanied by severe dehydration. Patients were randomized into two groups, one of which was prescribed azithromycin once at a dose of 20 mg / kg (but not more than 1 g), the other was erythromycin at one dose 12.5 mg / kg every 6 hours (but not more than 500 mg per day) within 3 days.

2 patients in each group refused to continue participating in the study, and another child in the group receiving erythromycin was excluded by the researchers.

The results of the study showed that the treatment was clinically effective in 48 of the 63 patients remaining in the azithromycin group and in 39 of the 60 patients in the erythromycin group. Bacteriological efficacy was observed in 45 patients in the azithromycin group and 49 patients in the erythromycin group.

It should be noted that in patients receiving azithromycin, the duration of diarrhea was shorter than that of the erythromycin group (on average 24 hours vs 48 hours, respectively). In addition, when taking azithromycin, vomiting was significantly less frequent (3 cases of vs 27 in the erythromycin group).

Researchers point out that treating cholera in children with a single dose of azithromycin can reach the same frequency of clinical and bacteriological cure as when using the regimen recommended by the International Center for Diarrhea (Bangladesh) (12 doses of erythromycin for 3 days).

The results of the study allow us to conclude that the appointment of a single dose of azithromycin is enough to treat cholera in children