For kids prone to wheezing with respiratory infections, early antibiotics help
In children whose colds tend to progress and lead to severe wheezing and difficulty breathing — such that they are given oral corticosteroids as rescue therapy — researchers have shown that giving a common antibiotic at the first sign of symptoms can reduce the risk of the episode developing into a severe lower respiratory tract illness.
Treatment strategy may reduce infants’ wheezing caused by virus
The antibiotic azithromycin may reduce the risk of
recurrent wheezing in infants hospitalized with a common respiratory
infection, according to a small pilot study at the School of Medicine. Reduced wheezing may lower an infant’s
risk of developing asthma over the next several years, according to the
researchers, including first author Avraham Beigelman, MD.