Effectiveness of levofloxacin in enteric fever

This intervention study was conducted to determine the efficacy of Levofloxacin in the treatment of uncomplicated enteric fever. Among 100 patients, who were purposively selected for the study had presented sign and symptoms of enteric fever with blood culture positive salmonella in laboratory findings during the admission in the department of Medicine, Uttara Adhunik Medical College & Hospital, Dhaka. Patients who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria were enrolled in the study and divided into two groups. One group was treated with oral levofloxacin 750mg once daily (OD) and another was injected with Levofloxacin 500mg once daily for 7 days. All the patients were examined twice daily to observe the clinical cure or failure of levofloxacin. Study was conducted from January 2008 to December 2008. Statistical analysis was performed by using statistical software SPSS version 12. Among the 100 patients in the study, majority of them 46(92%) were aged between 15 to 25 years, the next group was between 25 to 35 years 26(52%) and only three patients were aged above 65 years. Significant number of the patients were male (67), and the rest of them were female. The patients were clinically examined specially for anaemia, jaundice, caecal gurgling, hepatosplenomegaly in both the groups and the relevant investigations were performed. It was found that 46 patients in group A, who took oral levofloxacin, were cured after seven days, whereas 48 patients in group B were fully cured by taking injectable levofloxacin by seven days. In this study, levofloxacin was found to be the most effective drug in both oral and injectable form in one-week treatment of uncomplicated typhoid.