Why azithromycin is given for 3 days
Being treated with azithromycin over a period of three days is neither an haphazard nor an hypothetical method, but one that has been tested and proven effective especially in the treatment of minors. In this article we will look at two such tests to find out the answer to our question.
Listen and Follow Your Doctor’s Instructions!
For any medicine including azithromycin the first and most important thing to do is to listen carefully to what your doctor advises you to do and to follow the instructions to the letter. This is highly important for your treatment and recovery. There are always precautionary actions to take when it comes to medicinal treatment and here are some of them for you to follow:
- Don’t refuse to take the medication you are given – if you do, then it’s obvious that you don’t want to be cured and your infection may actually get worse.
- Never stop taking your drug medication in mid-course – if you do, your infection won’t receive the full potency of the treatment and in fact, the bacteria responsible for causing your condition will develop resistance to the treatment and you may not be cured at all.
- Taking an overdose of your medication is a serious mistake – If you happen to take more of the prescribed medicine than you should, notify your doctor at once. An overdose allows more of your medication to invade your body and can damage vital organs of your body such as the liver and heart.
The 3 Day Dose Pack
Many of us have heard about the 3 Day Dose Pack but for those who haven’t, it’s the normal dosage given to patients for 3 days when it is hoped that at that time, the increase of bacteria has been effectively stopped and the patient has returned to his normal state. The dosage is used mainly to treat many types of infections that are caused by bacteria. These conditions include infections of the lungs, cervix, genitals, sinus, urinary tract, throat, tonsils and skin but there are other conditions not listed that may also be treated with azithromycin.
How to Typically Take the Azithromycin 3 Day Dose Pack
Now that we know what it is, the next logical thing to do is know how to use it. Again faithfulness and consistency play a major part in taking the medication for the prescribed period of 3 days.
- The Azithromycin 3 Day Dose Pack medication can be taken in two ways. First by taking it orally in the mouth and ingesting it
- The Azithromycin 3 Day Dose Pack treatment can be injected directly into the vein for 2 days before you revert back to taking your treatment orally in the mouth. You will definitely need he expert assistance of an healthcare provider for giving you the injection.
- Like all other antibiotics Azithromycin 3 Day Dose Pack may be taken with or without food.
- Before you take your dose, shake the liquid oral suspension before you measure your dose using a syringe provided with the medication. You can also use another dose measuring device but not a spoon.
- When you begin your 3 day treatment, take care that you continue your treatment even if you know that your symptoms have improved all of a sudden. Don’t skip doses as this may worsen the risk of the bacteria in your infection to increase and make your infection much worse.
Proven Efficacy, Safety and Tolerability of 3 Day Azithromycin
Every medicine has to undergo trials and tests to establish their effectiveness, safety and tolerability of patients when taking the medicine. Azithromycin has been subjected to such tests the first for treating children with lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) and the second for treating children with Respiratory Tract Infections (RTI). It came through with flying colors in both tests clearly endorsing the practice of applying appropriate doses of the drug treatment for 3 days.
For the first test of azithromycin was set against a 10 day treatment course with co-amoxiclay of children with acute lower respiratory tract infections in a single hospital, a total of 110 patients qualified to be treated with the two medications. Respectively 56 and 54 of the patients were treated with azithromycin or co-amoxiclay and after the treatment it was found that a 3 day course of azithromycin in only three doses was a much more effective treatment.
For the second test, a total of 371 children were included to take part in an open multicenter study, aged from 6 months to 12 years. These children were infected with acute otitis media, acute sinusitis, streptococcal tonsillitis, pharyngitis (pneumonia). From the above total, 192 of the children were picked at random to receive azithromycin for 3 days with a dose of 10 mg/kg daily.
The other 179 children were given the same medication for 5 days with a first dose of 10 mg/kg on day 1 and 5 mg/kg on day 2 through 5. It was found at the end of the fifth day that overall, the clinical cure was 95.7% and 96.1$ and bacterial eradication rate was 90.1% and 94.2% for the 3-day and 5-day groups respectively. For side effects, mild gastrointestinal disturbances occurred in 5.3% of children for the 3-day group and 6.7% of the children in the 5-day group.
It was therefore found that for the second test on azithromycin, efficacy and tolerability were compatible for the 3 and 5 day period of the treatment for respiratory infections in children. One very interesting aspect of the tests was the identification of the actual pathogen (bacteria) which was responsible for causing the infection in 55% of all the patients treated.
Conclusion
It’s by no means an accident as to Why azithromycin is given for 3 days for the treatment of bacterial infection in children and therefore in adults as well. As can be seen from what has been discussed in this article, two tests involving the application of two drug treatments on two different groups of patients proved the efficacy, safety and tolerability of azithromycin against co-amoxiclay. The second test which involved the use of azithromycin only on two groups of patients did not disprove this but proved that both the 3 day and 5 day treatments were comparable.