Single-dose cefixime 800 mg plus doxycycline 100 mg twice a day for 7 days compared with single-dose ceftriaxone 1 g plus single-dose azithromycin 2 g for treatment of urogenital, rectal, and pharyngeal gonorrhoea: a randomised clinical trial

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of a single dose of oral cefixime 800 mg plus oral doxycycline 100 mg twice a day for 7 days, compared with a recommended single dose of ceftriaxone plus single dose of oral azithromycin, for treatment of uncomplicated urogenital, rectal, or pharyngeal gonorrhoea. Methods: A noninferiority, open-label, multicentre randomized controlled trial was conducted in Prague, Czech Republic. Some 161 patients, 18-65 years of age diagnosed with uncomplicated urogenital, rectal, or pharyngeal gonorrhoea by nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) were randomized to treatment with single dose of cefixime 800 mg plus doxycycline 100 mg twice a day for 1 week or a single dose of ceftriaxone 1 g intramuscularly plus single dose of azithromycin 2 g. The primary outcome was the number of participants with negative culture and NAAT at 1 week and 3 weeks, respectively, after treatment initiation. Results: In all, 161 patients were randomized and 152 were included in per-protocol analyses. All 76 (100%; 95% CI, 0.95-1.00) patients treated with ceftriaxone plus azithromycin achieved negative cultures and NAAT after treatment. In the cefixime plus doxycycline arm at week 1, culture was negative in all 76 (100%) patients; at week 3, culture was negative in 70 of the 76 patients (92%; 95% CI, 0.84-0.97) and NAAT negative in 66 of the 76 patients (87%; 95% CI, 0.77-0.94). At week 3, culture and NAAT were negative in 65 of the 76 patients (86%; 95% CI, 0.76-0.93). Per-protocol risk difference was 14.5%; 95% CI, 6.56-22.38. All treatment failures observed in the cefixime arm were pharyngeal gonorrhoea cases. Discussion: The combination of cefixime and doxycycline did not achieve noninferiority to ceftriaxone and azithromycin for treatment of gonorrhoea when including pharyngeal gonorrhoea. It did, however, show high efficacy for urogenital and rectal gonorrhoea. Beatrice Biz ⠁ov ⠃a, Clin Microbiol Infect 2024;30:211 (c) 2023 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.