| Methods |
Randomised, single‐blinded (patient), controlled trial |
| Participants |
Children with whooping cough and B. pertussis culture‐positive
Children who had received antibiotics other than erythromycin or co‐trimoxazole for their illness before their admission and children who had been immunised were included
Exclusion criteria: those who received antibiotics by the parenteral route or fluids by the intravenous route |
| Interventions |
Treatment group co‐trimoxazole 6 mg/kg/day of trimethoprim in 2 divided doses orally for 7 days
Controlled group erythromycin stearate 40 mg/kg/day in 4 divided doses orally for 7 days |
| Outcomes |
Microbiological eradication, diarrhoea |
| Notes |
Author supplied us with information regarding the article's methodology through personal contact. Immunisation status not stated |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Low risk |
Method of randomisation: pharmacy randomly allocated patients according to random number book |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Low risk |
Low risk |
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
Blinding of intervention: no. Blinding of outcome measure: yes |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
High risk |
Complete follow up: no |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Low risk |
|
