http://msnbc.com/news/749935.asp?0si=-
Antibiotics don¹t work for bronchitis
Study urges doctors to stop common treatment approach
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON, May 9 An antibiotic commonly given for acute bronchitis is no
better than low-dose vitamin C at treating the coughing attacks, new study
has found. Millions of people visit doctors every year for acute bronchitis
and most receive antibiotics even though there¹s not much evidence
antibiotics help, and it seems the condition is most often caused by a
virus, not bacteria.
THE STUDY, published this week in The Lancet medical journal,
concluded that doctors should stop giving the antibiotic azithromycin, known
by the brand name Zithromax, to patients with acute bronchitis.
Some experts said the findings confirm that antibiotics in general
are useless for acute bronchitis and that no antibiotic, whatever the type,
should be given for the condition.
Zithromax is not the only antibiotic experts have doubts about when
it comes to treating acute bronchitis.
A recent analysis of studies involving a variety of other antibiotics
concluded that while it¹s possible they might sometimes clear up the cough
about a day early, there¹s a hefty price to pay in side effects.
³It was a maybe, but this study pretty well refutes that,² said Dr.
Lorne Becker, head of family medicine at the State University of New York
Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, who was not involved with the latest
research but heads an expert group that regularly analyzes the research on
antibiotics and bronchitis.
Becker said he found the evidence definitive.
³There may be, hidden in this big group of people who don¹t
benefit, a small group of people who do, but I don¹t think there¹s going to
be a flip-flop on this for the general person coming in with bronchitis,² he
said.
Zithromax, made by Pfizer, is used to treat many bacterial infections
in different parts of the body, most commonly for pneumonia and sexually
transmitted chlamydia infections. Pfizer stressed that its drug targets only
bacteria and its approval for use in bronchitis is based on the assumption
that sometimes the coughing is caused by one of several bacteria types known
to be killed by the drug.
GERM CONFUSION
Part of the problem is that it is not easy to tell whether someone¹s
bronchitis is caused by a virus or bacteria. There is no test. Experts are
not even sure whether bronchitis is ever caused by bacteria, and there is no
evidence that antibiotics prevent bronchitis patients from developing a more
serious pneumonia infection.
However, many patients expect their doctors to ³do something² about
it, so they are most often sent away with a course of antibiotics.
Experts have condemned such inappropriate use of antibiotics because
it allows germs to build up immunity to the drugs, which then become useless
when they are really needed.
The study by researchers at Cook County Hospital and Rush Medical
College in Chicago involved 220 adults diagnosed with acute bronchitis a
persistent cough.
Half the patients were given Zithromax for five days and the others
were given low-dose vitamin C pills. Vitamin C has not been shown to be any
good for bronchitis and the patients didn¹t know which drug they were
getting, so the pills were considered a placebo.
On day seven, the scientists measured how much improvement each
patient had seen in the health-related quality of their lives. The
proportion of patients who had returned to their normal daily activities by
day seven was the same in both groups 89 percent.
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