Treatment of hemophilus influenzae meningitis: A comparison of chloramphenicol and tetracycline

A study was done to compare the efficacy of chloramphenicol and tetracycline for the treatment of meningitis due to Hemophilus influenzae. Alternate patients with this disease were treated with one or the other of these drugs given in daily doses of 50 mg/kg at intervals by the intravenous route. In 325 patients studied, no significant differences between the two groups could be detected with respect to rates of mortality and acute complications, speed of defervescence, or rapidity of clinical recovery. Although ampicillin is the best single drug for the initial treatment of bacterial meningitis because of its broad efficacy and relative nontoxicity, our data suggest that either chloramphenicol or tetracycline could also be used for the treatment of meningitis due to H. influenzae when ampicillin is contraindicated because of allergic reactions or drug failure or for other reasons.