Meropenem

[momiji]

Hi everyone,

I have bronchiectasis with haemophilius influenzae and will go in hospital for 10 days

to be treated with Meropenem IV.

Has anyone with haemophilius influenzae every been treated with this IV?

How long did the bug stay away before it came back again? If/when it did come back again, did you go back on oral medication or IVs. Any side effects?

Have you ever heard of a vaccination for this bacterium?

Happy Easter to you all!

Momiji

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Hi there Momiji. I had 14 days meropenem IV in Feb 2015, administered at home. I had previously been treated in hospital and at home with tazocin for pneumonia and an empyema. The tazocin had stopped working. The meropenem was very effective.Since then I have had three exacerbations in two years which is good for me. (I have bronchiectasis) These were treated with 750mg ciproxin bd. Cipro is the front line oral treatment for pseudomonas. Some people find that it is ineffective and some have problems with their tendons and so have to have other drugs by IV. I have to take antihistamines with all of these drugs, otherwise I get a rash.

It is a fallacy that pseudomonas goes away. The drugs reduce the numbers to the point where they cannot be counted in the lab. That is what we are all aiming at maintaining.

Also, readings in the lab often show that cipro is ineffective against the pseudomonas in the sputum sample. In fact, the drug can behave very differently in the body to how it performs in the lab and was extremely effective in my last exacerbations.

My experienced bronchiectasis and cf consultant at the QE in Bham has recently had to correct this misaprehension, believed by a respiratory consultant at another hospital and many GPs.

I hope that helps and that all goes well with the meropenem.

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I forgot to say that I nebulise ceftazidime daily as a prophylactic to keep the pseudomonas numbers down. Some people nebulise colistin and some nebulise tobramycin.

[Billiejean_2]

Hi Momiji, I've had Meropenem by IV, twice: in November 2014 for 14 days and Nov/Dec 2016 for 20 days. The first time it was very successful, the second time, a resounding failure. The first time it was used 'blind' because my samples weren't showing up any results in the lab but I had all the symptoms of infection for months on end. On this occasion it worked really well and I had a very good period for about 9 months. Unfortunately, in November 2015, I developed a nasty bug called Achromabacter, which was very hard to eradicate. Three weeks IV Meropenem plus oral Ciproxin, did not kill it and it required another 14 days of IV Tazocin in April 2016, to finally get rid of it.

Hopefully someone here will have had experience of Meropenem in treating HI and can answer your question more accurately. What I can tell you is that when it works, it works really well and I never had any distressing side effects from it. What is vitally important is the sensitivity of the bug to the medicine, so make sure it's recommended for use against HI.

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I was treated with a form of amoxicillin/penicillin for HI years ago and it worked fine and also Tazocin is supposed to be effective against it. Not sure how it reacts to Meropenem. I didn't read your post correctly as most of us bronchs are fighting pseudo or worse most of the time. There are more drugs available for HI.