Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of azithromycinfor treatment of uncomplicated pediatric scrub typhus.
Material and method: A randomized controlled trial was performed. We compared azithromycin with doxycycline or chloramphenicol in uncomplicated pediatric scrub typhus from inpatient pediatric department of Chiangrai Prachanukroh Hospital. The primary outcome was cure rate at day 3. The secondary outcomes were timing to defervescence within 72 hours, side effects, and relapsed rate. We compared data between both groups with Fisher's exact test or Mann-Whitney U test, and failure rate was demonstrated by Kaplan-Meier survival curve and Log-rank test.
Results: We included 57 patients, ofwhom, 28 were assigned to doxycycline or chloramphenicol (control group) and 29 to azithromycin (study group). The baseline characteristics of both groups were similar The cure rate was 85.7% in the doxycycline or chloramphenicol group, as compared to 79.3% in the azithromycin group (p = 0.73), and a median time to defervescence was 30 hours (IQR 21, 48) vs. 36 hours (IQR 20, 68) respectively (p = 0.166). There was a little minor side effect in azithromycin group. No relapsed was found in either groups.
Conclusion: Azithromycin was as effective as doxycycline or chloramphenicol in treatment of uncomplicated pediatric scrub typhus.