Bad asthma attack symptoms can now be reduced
During a recent study, it was found that Telithromycin can promote a significant drop in asthma symptoms when used for 10 days.
The drug is presently sold by Sanofi-Aventis under the name Ketek. The involved researchers believe that this drugs’s positive effects can be a result of impact on two bacteria, Chlamydophila pneumoniae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which were found in 61 percent of the patients involved in this study.
From News-Medical.Net:
Asthma is an incurable condition which affects 300 m people worldwide but its symptoms are eased using steroids.
By using a 7-point scale that measured symptoms such as wheezing, coughing and chest tightness with 7 the most severe, most patients rated their symptoms at about 3 before treatment.
Those receiving the drug eventually had their score drop an average of 1.3 points and the placebo recipients had a drop of 1.0 point said the researchers.
Ketek has previously come under scrutiny because it may, in rare cases, cause liver poisoning.
In three such instances reported in January, one patient died, another required a transplant, and the third recovered.
The drug was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2004, has been prescribed about 2.7 million times.
The study was published in an edition of the New England Journal of Medicine and got financed by the drug company, Sanofi-Aventis.
Tags: asthma, Steroids, Telithromycin
Recent Comments