Antibiotic could help cut AIDS deaths
19/11/2004 - 07:05:28A cheap and widely available antibiotic could be used to cut AIDS-related death in African children by more than 40%, scientists said today.
The findings were hailed as a breakthrough in medical science. Scientists from the UK's Medical Research Council conducted a trial in Zambia to see whether the drug, co-trimoxazole, could stop fatal infections linked to AIDS.
A group of 541 children aged one to 14 infected with the AIDS virus HIV were either given daily doses of the antibiotic, or an inactive placebo.
After 19 months, about a quarter of the treated children had died compared with more than 40% of those receiving the dummy drug.
Using the antibiotic also reduced hospital admissions by 23%.
The research was reported today in The Lancet medical journal.
