Evaluation of the clinical efficacy of erythromycin, amoxicillin and co-trimoxazole in the treatment of acute respiratory tract infections in paediatric patients.

An open comparative study was carried out in 56 paediatric patients with acute upper and lower respiratory tract infections to assess the efficacy and tolerance of treatment with erythromycin, amoxicillin or co-trimoxazole. Patients were treated with the standard recommended doses for 7 to 10 days. Diagnoses included otitis, tonsillitis, pharyngitis, epiglottiditis, pertussis, scarlet fever and bronchitis and, when possible, pathogens were isolated and identified at the initial visit. The clinical findings showed that all three treatment resulted in statistically significant decreases in final mean values for temperature, pulse rate and respiration rate. Twenty of the patients with positive cultures on entry became negative by the end of treatment. No clinical side-effects, were reported with any of the treatments. Overall assessment of response and acceptability of treatment by physician and patient/parent indicated that erythromycin was at least equally as effective as the other two drugs in treating common respiratory diseases found in paediatric practice.