Single drug dose may be better against cholera
By Nathan Seppa
A single dose of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin cures cholera in children as often as a 12-dose regimen of erythromycin does, a comparison of the treatments has revealed.
Severe diarrhea from the disease can cause life-threatening dehydration in children. Standard therapy for infected children is a 3-day course of erythromycin or tetracycline. But these regimens often pose logistical problems in developing countries, says Debasish Saha, a clinician and epidemiologist at the Centre for Health and Population Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh.