Tabish Hazir, Gul Nayyer Rehman, Shireen Khan, Mushtaq A Khan.
An open non-comparative study of the efficacy and safety of three day azithromycin treatment of Pneumonia in children under five years of age.
Pak Paed J Jan ;22(1):7-12.

Acute respiratory tract infections (ARI) are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. In order to reduce mortality due to respiratory tract infections WHO has developed ARI case management guidelines which recommend co-trimoxazole and amoxicillin for the treatment of childhood pneumonia. These antibiotics are safe, economical and effective in the majority of cases of pneumonia. However. situations do arise when treatment fails due to the presence of resistant organisms. Two of the major reasons for the growing problem of resistance are indiscriminate use of antibiotics and poor patient compliance. Shorter duration of treatment and single daily dosing is associated with better patient compliance. Azithromycin, an azalide, has been shown to be effective in the treatment of respiratory tract infections in a single daily dosing regimen of three days duration. An open non-comparative trial was carried out at the Children Hospital. Islamabad to assess the safety and efficacy of short couse of azithromycin in the treatment of childhood pneumonia. Our results. show a cure rate of 86% at the I4th day of follow-up. No adverse events were reported by any of the care takers in our study patients.

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