ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MIAn antibiotic a day keeps killer away

(02/07/12) - An antibiotic a day to keep the third leading cause of death at bay?

COPD, also known as Emphysema or chronic Bronchitis, affects at least 12 million Americans. And, it is something you can have for a long time without realizing it. Taking a daily antibiotic may help prevent flare ups, but there are some risks.

For 61-year-old Doug Viland, nothing beats an afternoon with his granddaughter Arianna. Keeping up with a non-stop 9-year-old isn't easy, though. Especially when you can't catch your breath.

"I'd take two or three steps and then I'd have to stop," Doug said. "I'd have episodes like that all the time."

Doug has been struggling for years with COPD, a serious lung disease that clogs his airways, causing a chronic cough and a lot of phlegm. Until recently, he would often suffer a sudden, severe onset of symptoms, called a flare up.

"There's been a sense for years that these flares in at least a group of patients with COPD are related to bacterial infection of the lung," says Dr. Fernando Martinez, director of Pulmonary Diagnostic Services at the University of Michigan Health System.

Dr. Martinez is among a group of researchers across the nation studying COPD, and the effects of a common antibiotic on the condition. For one year, 570 trial participants took daily doses of the drug Azithromycin in addition to their other COPD treatments.

"We were able to demonstrate that you were able to significantly decrease, by more than 20 percent the rate of flare ups in at-risk people," Martinez says. The daily regimen benefits those with moderate to severe symptoms.

Doug says it has made all the difference. "Before, I could only walk about half a block. Now I can walk up to five miles."

Researchers say they were concerned that patients on the daily regimen would develop antibiotic resistance. While the drugs did increase the amount of antibiotic resistant microbes in some patients, there were no infections reported. Still, more studies will be needed to look at the long-term effects of the antibiotic treatment.