Community-acquired pneumonia. Cost-effective antimicrobial therapy.

At present, three antibiotics (doxycycline, ofloxacin [Floxin], and azithromycin [Zithromax]) provide optimal therapy for both typical and atypical community-acquired pneumonias. These agents permit a monotherapeutic approach and are also ideal for intravenous-to-oral switch therapy, which results in great cost savings for an institution and an earlier discharge for the patient. The era of oral therapy has been ushered in because of economic imperatives. Fortunately, bioavailability of these three antibiotics is essentially the same when administered intravenously or orally. Moderately to severely ill patients may be safely and effectively treated via the oral route alone; however, most patients who require admission to the hospital are initially given intravenous therapy, after which a change is made to an oral antibiotic equivalent as soon as possible.