Discovery of better treatment for bacterial pneumonia
Posted on January 13, 2009
Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have demonstrated a more effective treatment for bacterial pneumonia following influenza.
They found that the antibiotics clindamycin and azithromycin, which kill bacteria by inhibiting their protein synthesis, are more effective than a standard first-line treatment with the “beta-lactam” antibiotic ampicillin, which causes the bacteria to lyse, or burst.
The finding is important because pneumonia, rather than the influenza itself, is a principal cause of death from influenza in children and the elderly. During pandemics-such as the one that may arise from avian influenza-up to 95 percent of influenza deaths are due to pneumonia. A bioterrorism attack using the influenza virus would likely result in the same high percentage of pneumonia deaths, according to the researchers.
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