JAMA Pediatrics: MPH’s Williams lead author on pediatric pneumonia study
A combination of two antibiotics is often prescribed to treat community-acquired pneumonia in children, but a JAMA Pediatrics study is now showing that using just one of the two has the same benefit to patients in most cases. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) researchers reported this week that amoxicillin alone, rather than combined with azithromycin, is just as effective and a better choice as it relates to efforts to curb antibiotic resistance.
“Combination therapy with azithromycin is unnecessary in most cases of pediatric pneumonia, both because the bacteria targeted by azithromycin are less common than other causes of pneumonia, including viruses, and the effectiveness of azithromycin has not been clearly demonstrated in prior studies,” said lead author Derek Williams, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of Pediatrics.