What Doctors Don't Tell YouErythromycin treatment in infants, particularly those in the first two weeks of life, increases the risk of a gastrointestinal disorder called infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS).
New research carried out by Cook County Hospital, Chicago, has found that azithromycin, an expensive antibiotic commonly prescribed in the US and now finding its way into the UK as Zithromax, should not be given for acute bronchitis.
Heart patients are regularly given antibiotics as part of their therapy on the theory that the respiratory virus Chlamydia pneumoniae plays a part in atherosclerosis, or furring of the arteries. The antibiotic kills the virus, and the furring stops.
