Press Release - Advancing Paediatric Antibiotic Research
Over the past five years, Health Economist Professor Susan Cleary, Dr Lucy Cunnama and Ms Mutsawashe Chitando from the Health Economics Unit and Division in the School of Public Health, have been working with clinicians and researchers across Africa, Italy and the United Kingdom, to assess the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of different antibiotic approaches for children with severe community acquired pneumonia as part of the PediCAP Randomised Control Trial in five African countries. The status quo treatment is to provide intravenous antibiotics to children as inpatients for five days, which affects the length of stay in hospital as well as the likelihood of being infected with hospital acquired infections. The alternatives in this trial revolve around stepping children down from initial shortened duration IV antibiotics to two different oral antibiotics, amoxicillin and co-amoxiclav, for various predefined durations (between four and eight days). On Thursday 1 February 2024 the preliminary Health Economics results from the PediCAP Trial together with the main results were showcased at an exciting Results Meeting in Johannesburg.