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Background to the review ‘Single inhaler therapy’ means that a single inhaler containing two drugs is used. One of these drugs acts quickly and is called the "reliever". The other works much more slowly and is called the "preventer". The reliever is a beta-agonist bronchodilator, which help to open the airways and help people breathe more easily. ...

Previous reviews indicate that antibiotics have, at best, only modest benefit for acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs). These benefits need to be balanced against adverse effects, costs and the risk of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics. One way for doctors to reduce their use is to prescribe delayed antibiotics (meaning providing the ...

We decided to update and amalgamate our reviews on the antiviral drugs zanamivir and oseltamivir for influenza on the basis of the manufacturers' reports to regulators (called clinical study reports) and regulators' comments (which we called regulatory information). Clinical study reports are extensive documents with exhaustive details of the trial ...

As cystic fibrosis worsens, breathing can become difficult. This indicates the start of respiratory failure, where there is too much carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen in the blood. As respiratory failure progresses people may also have problems clearing sputum. Respiratory failure eventually results in death. This review includes seven trials. Six ...

People with cystic fibrosis often have polyps in their nose which can cause discharge from the nose and block it up. We know that people with cystic fibrosis who have polyps in their nose also have more of some types of bacteria in their lungs. This can lead to serious chest complications later on. If we treat the polyps effectively at an early stage, ...

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is a major cause of acute respiratory infections in children. RSV infection can lead to morbidity and mortality in children, resulting in hospitalisation, admission to an intensive care unit, the need for intensive medical therapies and death. Most infected children suffer little consequence. However, children ...

Increasing numbers of young people are smoking in developing and poorer countries. Programmes to prevent them starting to smoke have been delivered in schools over the past 40 years. We wanted to find out if they are effective. We identified 49 randomised controlled trials (over 140,000 school children) of interventions aiming to prevent children who ...

Asthma is a common condition among children and adolescents causing intermittent wheezing, coughing and chest tightness. Concerns that physical exercise, such as swimming, can worsen asthma may reduce participation, and result in reduced physical fitness. This review aimed to determine the  effectiveness and safety of swimming training in children and ...

Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease caused by pertussis bacteria and may lead to death, particularly in infants less than 12 months of age. Although it can be prevented by routine vaccination, it still affects many people. Thirteen trials involving 2197 participants were included in this review. We found that several antibiotic treatments ...

Influenza is a viral respiratory infection that causes an acute febrile illness with myalgia, headache and cough, and can result in high morbidity and mortality rates during an epidemic. Annual epidemics are thought to result in between three and five million cases of severe influenza and between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths worldwide. Currently, annual ...