E-drug: Post-exposure prophylaxis for anthrax
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The following letter was published in the New York Times this
morning:
To the Editor:
You quote Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and
human services, as saying "doxycycline and penicillin are just as
effective as Cipro" (news article, Oct. 20). The major study in the
field, published by United States Army researchers in 1993, does
not support this statement.
In that study, groups of 10 monkeys received either doxycycline,
ciprofloxacin, penicillin or placebo for 30 days, beginning one day
after exposure to a large inhaled dose of anthrax.
Although no treated animals died from anthrax by Day 30
(compared with nine in the placebo group), in the 30 days after
stopping treatment, one animal in both the ciprofloxacin and
doxycycline groups died from anthrax, compared with three that
received penicillin.
Moreover, the penicillin was injected, while the other antibiotics
were taken by mouth.
Based on these data for this strain, were we exposed to anthrax,
we would take ciprofloxacin or doxycycline, but not penicillin.
Peter Lurie, M.D.
Sidney M. Wolfe, M.D.
Washington, Oct. 20, 2001
The writers are, respectively, deputy director and director, Public
Citizen's Health Research Group.
Peter Lurie, MD, MPH
Deputy Director
Public Citizen's Health Research Group
1600 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202)588-7781
Fax: (202)588-7796
Email: plurie@citizen.org
Web address: http://www.citizen.org
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