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Philip J. Rettig, MD
College of Medicine Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center Oklahoma City

Pisespong Patamasucon, MD; Jane D. Siegel, MD
Southwestern Medical School Dallas

JAMA. 1981;246(20):2321-2322.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

We would like to offer several comments on the recent article by Hammerschlag et al (1980; 244:2291) on postnatal prophylaxis of chlamydial conjunctivitis by use of topical erythromycin ointment.

This article hypothesizes that topical tetracycline may not be as effective as erythromycin in preventing ophthalmia neonatorum from Chlamydia trachomatis and mentions the occurrence of five cases within two months in infants who had received tetracycline ointment for ocular prophylaxis after birth at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas. We have more recent data from the same hospital that suggest the ineffectiveness of tetracycline. Between December 1977 and December 1980, all infants born at Parkland Memorial Hospital received either single-dose intramuscular aqueous penicillin G (13,949 neonates) or 1% topical tetracycline ointment (13,598 infants) within 60 minutes of birth in a study of the prophylaxis of neonatal group B streptococcal infections.¹ During the same period, we conducted a study of . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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