Five medical centres in the US are planning to conduct the SCOUT-CAP clinical trial to determine the efficacy of shorter course of antibiotics in treating community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children who show improvement after the first few days of taking antibiotics.
Sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the trial will conducted as a part of the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEU) programme in collaboration with the NIAID-funded Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG), which has been established to design and conduct clinical research to reduce the threat of antibiotic resistance.
NIAID director Anthony Fauci said: “Finding new strategies for treating bacterial infections and making better use of existing antibiotic medications are major areas of focus for researchers.
“This study aims to determine whether we can effectively treat young children for community-acquired pneumonia with a shorter course of antibiotic therapy than is currently the standard.
“Using only the amount of medication that is needed and no more not only is good for patients but could also help conserve the long-term effectiveness of available drugs.”
The trial will use an evaluation method developed by scientists specialised in antibiotic resistance research.
The method has been specifically designed to explore the best treatment strategies to reduce children’s exposure to antibiotics.
It will assess short courses of the oral antibiotics amoxicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanate combination and cefdinir.
The trial is planning to enrol 200 children who will be administered with a ten-day course of antibiotics, as well as 200 children who will receive the short course.
