Was taken into hospital with classic symptoms of Pneumonia on Sunday eve, had chest xray attempted bloods sent home with 11 antibiotics per day for a week. I was told this is an Invasive chest infection - but does that mean Pneumonia or not? Went back to the doctors today who mentioned it could be Pneumonia. Non of the health care professionals appear to want to give me much information, any ideas???
2007-02-22 03:33:24 · 4 answers · asked by Jizz 2 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Infectious Diseases
If you have been given Erythromycin in all probability you do have a chest infection and not Pneumonia. Usually a stronger medication such as penicillin is prescribed for that.
Ring up the hospital and speak to ward sister she will put you in the picture.
Hope it clears up soon and that you will soon be feeling much better.
2007-02-22 03:38:51 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pneumonia is a form of chest infection. There ia spectrum of severity of chest infections ranging from a mild bronchitis through varying severities of pneumonia to lung absesses and the differentiation is not very clear cut. Usually we look at the X ray or CT scan of the chest and decide what to call it. Erythromycin could be used to treat a bacterial respiratory tract infection unless a culture report allowed your docs to target the organism more accurately. If you had a bad pneumonia you would have been admitted to the hospital so the chances are that we're dealing with bronchitis. Often it is viral and the antibiotic does not help but it is prescribed against the possibility that it is a bacterial infection that will respond to it.
2007-02-22 03:42:47 · answer #2 · answered by Vinay K 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pneumonia is specifically infection of lungs where sometime even consolidation of lungs take place that takes weeks to resolve completely. On the other hand chest infection could be any organ located in chest that is infected. Erythromycin is an old antibiotic which was earlier given in patients who were allergic to penicillin. It has advantage of being administered orally. However you can not describe it as strong or weak antibiotic. If you need it, i ts best to take it. You cant treat an infection with latest antibiotic if causative agent is no sensetive to it.
2007-02-22 04:33:07 · answer #3 · answered by Jaggs 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Erythromycin may well be used to treat chest infections (bronchitis or pneumonia), but many pathogens are now resistant to it and there are newer and better antibiotics available, for example Levoxin which at doses of 500-750 mg per day in 1 pill for 7-10 days should eradicate any bacterial chest infection.
2007-02-22 04:56:49 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
erythromycin is not actually an anti biotic, its a synthetic type of medicin that does almost the same job as an antibiotic, its for people who are allergic to penicillin. On the label of the bottle i've got it says its for all sorts of problems including chest infections, it does not mention pheumonia so i assume that iit is not
2007-02-22 04:12:03 · answer #5 · answered by Elaina k 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Erythromycin is active against most gram-positive bacteria. It is often prescribed as a peniccilin substitute. It is a drug of choice for the treatment of mycoplasmal (the type genus of the family Mycoplasmataceae containing minute pleomorphic gram-negative chiefly nonmotile bacteria that are mostly parasitic usually in mammals ) pneumonia and legionnaires disease.
2007-02-22 03:50:39 · answer #6 · answered by Ém 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ring nhs direct. they'll answer any questions you have or visit the website
2007-02-22 03:41:24 · answer #7 · answered by mishnbong 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its a strong antibiotic.
2007-02-22 03:35:51 · answer #8 · answered by JJ88 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋