New ATS guideline on CAP recommends erythromycin
New ATS guideline on CAP recommends erythromycin
For outpatients age 60 and under, using the antibiotic erythromycin for treating community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) reduces treatment costs compared with the use of other antibiotics ($5.43 vs. $18.51), according to a new guideline from the American Thoracic Society (ATS).
But for those patients over 60, the ATS guideline does not recommend using erythromycin alone. Additional drugs may also be necessary for patients of any age with comorbidities. University of Pittsburgh researchers evaluating ATS guideline found that antibiotics (most often amoxicillin/clavulanate, sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, or cefuroxime) costs nearly 10 times more than using erythromycin ($73.50 vs. $7.50) and provides no increased effectiveness in outcomes.
These findings are part of the Pneumonia Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT) study funded by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Hyattsville, MD.
It is described in the July 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The PORT study provides the first objective data to compare the clinical effectiveness and costs of antibiotic therapy with clinical guidelines for CAP.
The study looked at 864 adults of which 546 were under age 60 with no comorbidity and 318 were older than 60 years with at least one comorbidity. Four million Americans are diagnosed with CAP each year; four-fifths are treated in ambulatory settings. Of the $1 billion in director outpatient treatment costs for these patients, about $100 million is spent on some 30 antibiotics the Food and Drug Administration has approved for CAP.
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