The Antibacterial Sitafloxacin Saved a Melanoma Patient's Life

Recently, a melanoma patient in Shaanxi — probably after contracting influenza A, which lowered his immunity — developed another kind of bacterial infection that was very hard to detect. Although blood tests confirmed a bacterial infection, his local hospital could not identify the exact source; later he was transferred to the ICU of a Grade-A tertiary hospital in Xi'an, which also could not identify the source.

The patient had persistent high fever lasting several weeks; every kind of Chinese and Western medicine was tried but could not bring the fever down. Because over the past three years I had kept his melanoma well controlled — his condition stable, the tumor shrinking — he had basically turned to me whenever similar problems arose before. But this time, try as I might, I could not resolve his problem, and Western physicians in Shaanxi could not resolve it either.

The fever had lasted so long that his physical strength was obviously depleted, and later he developed pleural effusion; the situation was critical. The patient's family then turned through an internet hospital to a physician specializing in infectious diseases in Shanghai, who suggested an antibiotic called sitafloxacin. On the very first day the patient took sitafloxacin, his temperature dropped from over 39°C to over 37°C, and after three days the fever was basically gone. He has now been discharged from the Xi'an hospital to recuperate at home, and can do normal housework.

Honestly, I had never even heard of the name sitafloxacin before. It was simply that the infectious-disease physician in Shanghai, based on clinical experience, thought this drug might work for this patient, so they tried it.

I looked it up on Baidu: sitafloxacin is a quinolone antibacterial that exerts a bactericidal effect by inhibiting bacterial DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV. Sitafloxacin has broad-spectrum bactericidal action, with inhibitory effects on dozens of bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Chlamydia pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Peptostreptococcus and Enterobacter aerogenes. It is indicated for pharyngitis, laryngitis, tonsillitis, acute bronchitis, infectious pneumonia, secondary infection of chronic respiratory disease, cystitis, pyelonephritis, cervicitis, otitis media, sinusitis, periodontitis, pericoronitis and osteitis of the jaw.

Acute infectious diseases are treacherous; if an effective drug cannot be found in time, the patient may even die. I am writing about this patient's experience and sharing it for the reference of other patients.