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Treatment of bacillary dysentery in Vietnamese children: two doses of ofloxacin versus 5-days nalidixic acid.

Author(s): Vinh H, Wain J, Chinh MT, Tam CT, Trang PT, Nga D, Echeverria P, Diep TS, White NJ, Parry CM

Affiliation(s): Centre for Tropical Diseases, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Publication date & source: 2000-05, Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg., 94(3):323-6.

Publication type: Clinical Trial; Randomized Controlled Trial

Nalidixic acid (NA: 55 mg/kg daily for 5 days) is the recommended treatment for uncomplicated bacillary dysentery in areas where multidrug-resistant Shigella are prevalent. An open randomized comparison of this NA regimen with 2 doses of ofloxacin (total 15 mg/kg) was conducted in 1995/96 in 135 Vietnamese children with fever and bloody diarrhoea. Sixty-six children with a bacterial pathogen isolated were eligible for analysis. Of the 63 Shigella isolates, 39 (62%) were resistant to multiple antibiotics. Resolution times for fever and diarrhoea were similar in the 2 groups, but excretion time of stool pathogen was significantly longer in the NA recipients [median (range) days 1 (1-9) vs 1 (1-2), P = 0.001]. There were 9 (25%) treatment failures in the NA regimen and 3 (10%) in the ofloxacin group; P = 0.1. Two patients had NA-resistant Shigella flexneri. One of these isolates was selected during NA treatment. From a clinical and public health standpoint a 2-dose regimen of ofloxacin is preferable to nalidixic acid in the treatment of bacillary dysentery.

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