Sandbox JA
Medical Therapy
The treatment of anthrax infection includes antimicrobial and antitoxin agents. This treatment and postexposure prophylaxis differs from other bacterial infections because:
- Production of toxin
- Potential antibiotic resistance
- Frequent occurrence of meningitis
- Presence of latent spores must be taken into account when selecting postexposure prophylaxis or a combination of antibiotics for treatment of anthrax.
Hospitalized patients for systemic anthrax should be immediately treated with a combination of broad-spectrum intravenous antimicrobial drug treatment pending confirmatory test results because any delay may prove fatal.
Because meningitis and hemorrhagic brain parenchymal infection was observed in ≤50% of cases, meningitis must be considered in all cases of systemic anthrax. therefore antibiotics to treat possible meningitis must have good penetration of the central nervous system (CNS).