Skip to main content
PMC home page
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy logoLink to Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
. 1991 Sep;35(9):1864–1867. doi: 10.1128/aac.35.9.1864

Efficacy of a single dose of furazolidone for treatment of cholera in children.

G H Rabbani 1, T Butler 1, M Shahrier 1, R Mazumdar 1, M R Islam 1
PMCID: PMC245282  PMID: 1952859

Abstract

To test the efficacy and safety of furazolidone given as a single dose for childhood cholera, a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial was carried out among 118 culture-positive dehydrated children with diarrhea. Patients were randomly assigned to one of four groups to receive medication orally in liquid suspension: furazolidone at 7 mg/kg/day once, furazolidone at 7 mg/kg/day divided into four doses for 3 days, placebo once, or placebo for 3 days. After 12 patients with furazolidone-resistant infections were excluded from the analysis of efficacy, it was determined that both groups treated with furazolidone showed significantly higher rates of bacteriologic success (stool cultures negative for Vibrio cholerae on days 2 to 4 after start of therapy) and clinical success (cessation of diarrhea within 72 h after start of therapy) than corresponding placebo groups (P less than 0.001). There were no significant differences between responses to the 3-day and single-dose regimens of furazolidone, but there was a trend toward better clinical responses in patients who received furazolidone for 3 days. No patient treated with furazolidone dropped out because of side effects. These results indicate that furazolidone, given as either a single dose or divided doses for 3 days, is effective treatment for childhood cholera.

Full text

PDF
1864

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Banwell J. G., Pierce N. F., Mitra R. C., Brigham K. L., Caranasos G. J., Keimowitz R. I., Fedson D. S., Thomas J., Gorbach S. L., Sack R. B. Intestinal fluid and electrolyte transport in human cholera. J Clin Invest. 1970 Jan;49(1):183–195. doi: 10.1172/JCI106217. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bassily S., Farid Z., Mikhail J. W., Kent D. C., Lehman J. S., Jr The treatment of Giardia lamblia infection with mepacrine, metronidazole and furazolidone. J Trop Med Hyg. 1970 Jan;73(1):15–18. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bauer A. W., Kirby W. M., Sherris J. C., Turck M. Antibiotic susceptibility testing by a standardized single disk method. Am J Clin Pathol. 1966 Apr;45(4):493–496. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Butler T., Islam M., Azad A. K., Islam M. R., Speelman P. Causes of death in diarrhoeal diseases after rehydration therapy: an autopsy study of 140 patients in Bangladesh. Bull World Health Organ. 1987;65(3):317–323. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chamberlain R. E. Chemotherapeutic properties of prominent nitrofurans. J Antimicrob Chemother. 1976 Dec;2(4):325–336. doi: 10.1093/jac/2.4.325. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Chaudhuri R. N., Neogy K. N., Sanyal S. N., Gupta R. K., Manji P. Furazolidone in the treatment of cholera. Lancet. 1968 Feb 17;1(7538):332–333. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(68)90796-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Craft J. C., Murphy T., Nelson J. D. Furazolidone and quinacrine. Comparative study of therapy for giardiasis in children. Am J Dis Child. 1981 Feb;135(2):164–166. doi: 10.1001/archpedi.1981.02130260056016. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. DuPont H. L., Ericsson C. D., Galindo E., Wood L. V., Morgan D., Bitsura J. A., Mendiola J. G. Furazolidone versus ampicillin in the treatment of traveler's diarrhea. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1984 Aug;26(2):160–163. doi: 10.1128/aac.26.2.160. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Glass R. I., Huq I., Alim A. R., Yunus M. Emergence of multiply antibiotic-resistant Vibrio cholerae in Bangladesh. J Infect Dis. 1980 Dec;142(6):939–942. doi: 10.1093/infdis/142.6.939. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Gorbach S. L., Banwell J. G., Jacobs B., Chatterjee B. D., Mitra R., Brigham K. L., Neogy K. N. Intestinal microflora in Asiatic cholera. II. The small bowel. J Infect Dis. 1970 Jan;121(1):38–45. doi: 10.1093/infdis/121.1.38. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Love A. H., Phillips R. A., Rohde J. E., Veall N. Sodium-ion movement across intestinal mucosa in cholera patients. Lancet. 1972 Jul 22;2(7769):151–153. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(72)91326-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Norrby S. R. The design of clinical trials with antibiotics. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 1990 Jul;9(7):523–529. doi: 10.1007/BF01964296. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Pierce N. F., Banwell J. G., Mitra R. C., Caranasos G. J., Keimowitz R. I., Thomas J., Mondal A. Controlled comparison of tetracycline and furazolidone in cholera. Br Med J. 1968 Aug 3;3(5613):277–280. doi: 10.1136/bmj.3.5613.277. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Rabbani G. H., Islam M. R., Butler T., Shahrier M., Alam K. Single-dose treatment of cholera with furazolidone or tetracycline in a double-blind randomized trial. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1989 Sep;33(9):1447–1450. doi: 10.1128/aac.33.9.1447. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Speelman P., Butler T., Kabir I., Ali A., Banwell J. Colonic dysfunction during cholera infection. Gastroenterology. 1986 Nov;91(5):1164–1170. doi: 10.1016/s0016-5085(86)80012-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. WEBSTER B. H. Furazolidone in the treatment of giardiasis. Am J Dig Dis. 1960 Jul;5:618–622. doi: 10.1007/BF02290195. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Wang F., Butler T., Rabbani G. H., Jones P. K. The acidosis of cholera. Contributions of hyperproteinemia, lactic acidemia, and hyperphosphatemia to an increased serum anion gap. N Engl J Med. 1986 Dec 18;315(25):1591–1595. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198612183152506. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Young M. J., Bresnitz E. A., Strom B. L. Sample size nomograms for interpreting negative clinical studies. Ann Intern Med. 1983 Aug;99(2):248–251. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-99-2-248. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES