AboutDr. Ravindra Bhaskar Ghooi Expertise I can provide information on drugs and medicines, their actions, uses, interactions and adverse effects. To avoid confusion, generic names of
medicines may please be provided. I am a pharmacologist, having worked
on animal and human pharmacology, and presently I am the Dean of Bilcare Research Academy, where we teach courses on clinical research. We dont work on saturdays and sundays, hence questions reachng me on these days will be replied on Monday, please bear with me.
Question I recently saw a physician at a "walk-up" clinic as my regular physician's office was closed for the day. I could tell I had strep throat as I've had it a few times before and I tend to get it at least once a year (I appear to be very susceptible to getting it and have 3 school aged children and I travel a good bit). ALl that said, after checking me over she confirmed my belief and said i had it "good!" I told her that Amoxicillin doesn't work for me very well and she said it doesn't work for many adults well. I asked about Zithromax and she said she was going to put me on Cephalexin. That is was specifically designed for the Strep family of bacteria and should take care of things nicely. I started the medicine late Wednesday. I don't seem to be any worse that I can tell today (Friday) but I don't feel a whole lot better either. Long winded way to ask... Is Cephalexin a good "strong" antibiotic for treating Strep throat? Thanks!
Answer Hi,
In general the first generation cephalosporins do work in gram positive infections. Cephalexin is a first generation drug and streptococci are gram positive. Cephalexin is therefore used for the same. However when you get an infection, the strain that has infected you may or may not be sensitive to the drug. The physician has prescribed the drug on the basis of its known activity against the organism, only a bacterial culture sensitivity test can tell whether your infection will respond. The tests are however quite expensive and hence only conducted if the infection is serious which a throat infection is generally not.
I hope this information helps.
Regards
Ravi Ghooi
