Kuwaiti physicians welcome advances in antibiotic treatment

The meeting, which drew doctors from across Kuwait, was chaired by Dr. Mousa Khadadah, Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, and welcomed Prof .Hartmut Lode, Professor of Medicine at the Medical Department of The Freie University of Berlin, Germany.

One of the topics examined in the symposium was the challenge of ensuring that antibiotic treatments are used effectively among Kuwait's patient population.

In particular, they look at the problems associated with non-compliance, where patients fail to complete a course of medicine or do not take the medication as prescribed by their physician.

A global survey conducted among 4,500 people in 11 countries revealed that only six in ten people understood that taking an antibiotic improperly may reduce its effectiveness.

The COMPLY study (COmpliance, Modalities by Population, Lifestyle and Geography) discovered almost a quarter (22 percent) of those questioned admitted being noncompliant with their last antibiotic treatment.

The decision to approve the new treatment for Kuwait, Zithromax SD, expands the range of options available for prescribing antibiotic medication in the Middle East and enables doctors to enhance the treatment being afforded to Kuwaiti patients.

New generation antibiotics allow a patient to take a full course of treatment in a single dose, without the need for regular antibiotics, which are sometimes prescribed in three or four doses a day for a week or 10 days.

Advanced treatments like the recently-approved Zithromax SD use "microsphere technology," where the medicine is released more gradually in the patient's system.

In the first 24 hours after a dose of the treatment, the amount of drug that gets into the infected tissue is three times higher than a standard dose of alternative antibiotic treatments. This "front loading" provides high drug levels earlier in the course of infection when the bacterial burden is likely to be highest.

It also remains in the infected tissues for a sufficient period of time to completely eradicate the bacteria and ensure a complete cure for the patient with a very high safety profile. The ease of taking the medication reduces the impact of non-compliance.

"Ongoing advances in developing common medications like antibiotics are helping us to move the fight against infections around the world, so the approval of Zithromax SD is a very positive move," said Dr. Sana S.Al-Mutairi, Consultant Chest Physician, Assistant Professor- Faculty of Medicine-Kuwait University.

"The unique advantage that the treatment has is that it concentrates on exactly the right area. It travels directly to the infected cells, remaining there for a prolonged period to keep fighting the organisms causing the infection until it has disappeared," said Dr Muaaz Tarabichi, Head of the ENT department, American Hospital, Dubai, UAE.

Following its approval in Kuwait, it is currently the only antibiotic available both in Kuwait and worldwide to treat adult respiratory tract infections with only one dose, maximizing the chances of treatment completion and therefore ensuring the best efficacy results for patients.