Why are we* doing the PARROT trial?

Many children with NI are prone to chest infections, which can lead to long stays in hospital, and can be life threatening.

Despite the impact on children and their families due to these infections and the high cost to health services, there is very little information on how best to prevent them. Some doctors prescribe long-term antibiotics but we don’t really know whether this makes any difference to the numbers of chest infections children suffer from, or whether these antibiotics can cause long-term harm.

PARROT is a clinical trial looking at an antibiotic called azithromycin. This trial aims to find out whether 12 months of treatment with azithromycin reduces how often children with NI have to stay in hospital with chest infections.

*University of Liverpool, LCTC, Bangor University and Menzies School of Health Research are working collaboratively on the PARROT trial. Together these bodies are the central trial team and are referred to as ‘we’ throughout this website.