Double-blind placebo-controlled trial of erythromycin in the treatment of clinical campylobacter infection.

In a double-blind placebo-controlled trial in patients hospitalized with campylobacter infection, erythromycin lessened pain and curtailed the carriage state but otherwise did not alter the natural course of the illness, which proved to be a short-lived, self-limiting one, even in this selected group of hospitalized patients; the majority had become asymptomatic by the time of the bacteriological diagnosis. The rarity of bacteraemia is highlighted by the study.