Chemoprophylaxis


Chemoprevention refers to the administration of a medication for the purpose of preventing disease or infection. Antibiotics, for example, may be administered to patients with disorders of immune system function to prevent bacterial infections. Antibiotics may also be administered to healthy individuals to limit the spread of an epidemic, or to patients who have repeated infections to prevent recurrence. It may also refer to the administration of heparin to prevent deep venous thrombosis in hospitalized patients.
In some cases, chemoprophylaxis is initiated to prevent the spread of an existing infection in an individual to a new organ system, as when intrathecal chemotherapy is administered in patients with malignancy to prevent further infection.
The use of chemoprophylaxis is limited primarily by two factors: risk and financial costs.
Using chemoprophylaxis as a treatment against early signs of tuberculosis has proven to be effective. In familial adenomatous polyposis physicians observed polyps regression with NSAIDs for anti-inflammatory therapy. Chemoprophylaxis is also used to treat several different varieties of meningococcal infections for close contact exposure to Neisseria meningitidis.