The efficacy of azithromycin and doxycycline for the treatment of rectal chlamydia infection: A systematic review and meta-analysis
- Publication Type:
- Journal Article
- Citation:
- Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 2014, 70 (5), pp. 1290 - 1297
- Issue Date:
- 2014-10-20
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© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. Background: There are increasing concerns about treatment failure following treatment for rectal chlamydia with 1 g of azithromycin. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the efficacy of 1 g of azithromycin as a single dose or 100 mg of doxycycline twice daily for 7 days for the treatment of rectal chlamydia. Methods: Medline, Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, Australia New Zealand Clinical Trial Register and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched to the end of April 2014. Studies using 1 g of azithromycin or 7 days of doxycycline for the treatment of rectal chlamydia were eligible. Gender, diagnostic test, serovar, symptomatic status, other sexually transmitted infections, follow-up time, attrition and microbial cure were extracted. Meta-analysis was used to calculate pooled (i) azithromycin and doxycycline efficacy and (ii) efficacy difference. Results: All eight included studies were observational. The random-effects pooled efficacy for azithromycin (based on eight studies) was 82.9% (95% CI 76.0%-89.8%; I2=71.0%; P,0.01) and for doxycycline (based on five studies) was 99.6% (95% CI 98.6%-100%; I21/40%; P1/40.571), resulting in a random-effects pooled efficacy difference (based on five studies) of 19.9% (95% CI 11.4%-28.3%; I2=48.5%; P1/40.101) in favour of doxycycline. Conclusions: The efficacy of single-dose azithromycin may be considerably lower than 1 week of doxycycline for treating rectal chlamydia. However, the available evidence is very poor. Robust randomized controlled trials are urgently required.
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