The role of temafloxacin in the community setting: an overview.

The use of new quinolones has become established therapy for many community infections including urinary tract infection, genital infection, soft tissue infection and some forms of lower respiratory tract infection. However, there has been an undercurrent of anxiety concerning their efficacy in pneumococcal infections. Temafloxacin has improved activity against pneumococci and its high oral bioavailability and excellent penetration into respiratory tissues now combine to provide a suitable profile for the management of a wider range of respiratory infections. Eradication rates in acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis collated from individual studies are 98% overall and 100% in pneumococcal infections. Furthermore, eradication rates in smokers and the elderly illustrate significant advantages for temafloxacin when compared with previous quinolones. In pneumonia, a twice-daily temafloxacin regimen has given equivalent overall results to those of amoxycillin (84.6% vs 80%). In proven pneumococcal pneumonia, equivalent results (78.6% vs 78.4%) have been obtained with both drugs. A daily 600 mg dose of temafloxacin eradicated 94% of pneumococcal isolates in one study and in another this agent given twice-daily orally proved comparable to parenteral cephalosporin treatment. Temafloxacin shares with other quinolones excellent bacteriological and clinical efficacy against Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis. These results and the lack of potential interaction with theophylline indicate temafloxacin to be suitable for domiciliary management of respiratory tract infections in addition to a broad range of other community infectious diseases.