Azithromycin is ineffective in treating or aiding with the recovery of children with acute diarrhea
Reviewed by Dat Tien Nguyen, B.A, ScM. Posted on August 31st, 2022
Annually, approximately half a million children lose their lives to acute diarrhea, and this burden of disease is heavily borne by South Asian and sub-Saharan African nations. Beside rotavirus, most of the cases are caused by bacteria such as Shigella, Campylobacter, and E. coli. A multinational study reported on the effect of Azithromycin usage in treating acute watery diarrhea in low and middle income countries.
8,266 children between the ages of 2 and 23 months were enrolled in the randomized controlled trial. Half of them were given Azithromycin (10 mg/kg) for 3 days and half were given placebo for the same duration of time. After 90 days of observation, growth faltering was observed in both groups at the same rate. And after 180 days of observation, the all-cause mortality rate is similar between the two groups: 0.5% in the intervention group and 0.8% in the placebo group.
From the results, the study can conclude that the supplementation of azithromycin is not productive in treating acute watery diarrhea or aiding with the recovery process. In addition, usage of antibiotics will increase the rate of resistance, which will detrimentally nullify the effectiveness of the much needed medications.
8,266 children between the ages of 2 and 23 months were enrolled in the randomized controlled trial. Half of them were given Azithromycin (10 mg/kg) for 3 days and half were given placebo for the same duration of time. After 90 days of observation, growth faltering was observed in both groups at the same rate. And after 180 days of observation, the all-cause mortality rate is similar between the two groups: 0.5% in the intervention group and 0.8% in the placebo group.
From the results, the study can conclude that the supplementation of azithromycin is not productive in treating acute watery diarrhea or aiding with the recovery process. In addition, usage of antibiotics will increase the rate of resistance, which will detrimentally nullify the effectiveness of the much needed medications.