Erythromycin Versus Tetracycline for Treatment of Mediterranean Spotted Fever
Arch Dis Child: first published as 10.1136/adc.61.10.1027 on 1 October 1986. Downloaded from Archives of Disease in Childhood, 1986, 61, 1027-1029 Erythromycin versus tetracycline for treatment of Mediterranean spotted fever T MUNOZ-ESPIN, P LOPEZ-PARtS, E ESPEJO-ARENAS, B FONT-CREUS, I MARTINEZ- VILA, J TRAVERIA-CASANOVA, F SEGURA-PORTA, AND F BELLA-CUETO Hospital de Sant Llatzer, Terrassa, Clinica Infantil del Nen Jesus, Sabadell, and Hospital Mare de Deu de la Salut, Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain SUMMARY Eighty one children aged between 1 and 13 years participated in a randomised comparative trial of tetracycline hydrochloride and erythromycin stearate for treatment of Mediterranean spotted fever. Both therapeutic regimens proved effective, but in patients treated with tetracycline both clinical symptoms and fever disappeared significantly more quickly. Likewise, when those patients who began treatment within the first 72 hours of illness are considered the febrile period had a significantly shorter duration in the group treated with tetracycline. One patient was switched to tetracycline because there was no improvement of clinical manifestations, with persistence of fever, myalgias, and prostration, after receiving eight days of treatment with erythromycin. These results suggest that tetracyclines are superior to erythromycin in the treatment of Mediterranean spotted fever. copyright. Mediterranean spotted fever is an acute infectious were not included in the trial; neither were those disease caused by Rickettsia conorii. During the
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