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Single Dose Azithromycin in the Treatment of Adult Cholera

NCT00229944 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE3 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 220

Last updated 2006-07-21

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Cholera remains an important cause of diarrhoeal illness and death in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Antimicrobial therapy is an important adjunct to fluid therapy in the management of patients with cholera, and should be given to all patients with clinically moderate-to-severe disease since they can reduce the diarrhoea duration and stool volume by half. Current therapy for cholera is limited by increasing prevalence of multiply-resistant strains of Vibrio cholerae O1 or O139. Tetracycline and doxycycline had been the drugs of choice for treating cholera, but multiply-resistant strains are now present in all areas where cholera is endemic or epidemic. There is thus a need to identify alternative drugs that are effect in treating this disease.

Azithromycin, a newer macrolide agent, is active in-vitro against V. cholerae, attains high concentrations in the gut lumen, has a long half-life, and is better tolerated than erythromycin, and older macrolide. In this study we will compare efficacy of a single, 1.0 g oral doses of azithromycin and ciprofloxacin in male patients, aged 18-60 years, with cholera due to V. cholerae O1 or O139. Patients with typical "Rice watery" stools of cholera, signs of severe dehydration and characteristic cholera vibrios in a dark-field stool microscopy. Patients who have coexisting illness which may confound assessment of the efficacy or safety will not be eligible. Only those patients who have V. cholerae O1 or O139 isolated from their pre-therapy stool and/or rectal swab culture and remains in the hospital for the entire duration of the study will be eligible for efficacy evaluation. A written informed consent will be obtained from each patients for their enrollment in the study.

Patients will be hospitalized for full 5 days, and asked to return for a follow up evaluation 7 days after discharge. After initial rehydration, patients will be observed for 4 hours, and only those with ³ 20 ml/kg of watery stools during this period will be enrolled for study. Treatment will be random, and blinded to study staff and patients. Clinical success of therapy will be defined as resolution of watery stool within 48 hours of administration of the study drug, and bacteriologic success will be defined as the inability to isolate V. cholerae O1 or O139 from fecal/rectal swab cultures of patients after 48 hours of therapy, i.e. on day 3 and on all subsequent days of the study. Patients in whom therapy clinically fails will be treated for 3 days with an effective alternate drug without opening the study code. Ninety one evaluable patients will be required in each group to show with a power of 80% and a type I error of 5% that the two treatment regimens are equivalent (i.e. the 95% confidence interval for the difference in efficacy between the two groups is not greater than 10%).

If single-dose azithromycin therapy is found effective it will provide an important option for the treatment V. cholerae infections, especially those caused by multiply-resistant strains.

Conditions

  • Cholera

Interventions

DRUG

Azithromycin

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Pfizer

    collaborator INDUSTRY

  • Tufts Medical Center

    collaborator OTHER

  • International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Debasish Saha, MBBS,MS · International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
60 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2002-12-31
Completion
2004-05-31

Countries

  • Bangladesh

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00229944 on ClinicalTrials.gov