Efficacy of Lantigen B in the prevention of bacterial respiratory infections.

BACKGROUND

Respiratory tract infections are among the most common diseases both in adults and children.

METHODS

This multicentre study, was carried out in 212 patients (118 adults with chronic respiratory diseases and 94 children with recurrent respiratory infections) at six Italian study centres. It was performed to establish the efficacy of Lantigen B for the prevention of bacterial complications and/or reduction of associated symptoms. Lantigen B is an oral product based on bacterial lysates of six different inactivated strains commonly involved in respiratory tract infections.

RESULTS

The results of prophylactic treatment with Lantigen B in the population investigated were as follows: - the mean incidence of recurrence in the pediatric patients over the 6-month observation period of the study was 1.643 in the placebo group and 1.211 in the Lantigen B group (a relative reduction of 35.7%); - the mean incidence of recurrence in the adult patients over the 6-month observation period of the study was 0.73 in the placebo group and 0.56 in the Lantigen B group (a relative reduction of 30.4%). The improvement in other important parameters, such as the number of days with a high temperature, cough, and catarrh in the children and objective clinical findings at the lymph nodes of the neck, chest, and pharyngotonsillar region in the adults, provides further evidence of the efficacy of Lantigen B.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates Lantigen B's effectiveness in the prevention of bacterial complications and suggests that it can be used in patients who are particularly at risk of infection (children, the elderly, diabetics, and immunocompromised patients) or those in whom an infection might aggravate a clinical picture that is already inherently complicated (diabetics again, but also patients with heart, kidney, or liver disease).