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Azithromycin is a broad-spectrum antibiotic allowing once-daily dosing and a short course, advantageous characteristics for treating children. These authors report on a multicenter, double-blind trial of azithromycin in 456 nonhospitalized children 6 months to 16 years of age with community-acquired pneumonia.
Children under 5 years old received azithromycin or amoxicillin/clavulanate, and those over 5 years, azithromycin or erythromycin. Azithromycin was given for 5 days, and each comparison drug for 10. The comparison drugs differed between the two age groups because Mycoplasma pneumoniae becomes more common after age 5. Only 1.9% were diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia, compared with 29.5% with M. pneumoniae and 15% with Chlamydia pneumon…