The traditional treatment of strep infections has been a

Question

The traditional treatment of strep infections has been a seven-day course of antibiotics, either penicillin or erythromycin. However, since many patients stop taking those drugs within three days, reinfection is common in cases where those drugs are prescribed. A new antibiotic requires only a three-day course of treatment. Therefore, reinfection will probably be less common in cases where the new antibiotic is prescribed than in cases where either penicillin or erythromycin is prescribed.
Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?
A. Some of the people who are allergic to penicillin are likely to be allergic to the new antibiotic.
B. A course of treatment with the new antibiotic costs about the same as a course of treatment with either penicillin or erythromycin.
C. The new antibiotic has been shown to be effective in eradicating bacterial infections other than strep.
D. Some physicians have already begun to prescribe the new antibiotic instead of penicillin or erythromycin for the treatment of some strep infections.
E. Regardless of whether they take a traditional antibiotic or the new one, most patients feel fully recovered after taking the drug for three days.

rthothad · Answer

I will go with 'B' - since the new drug costs the same as the old one people would rather go in for a 3 day course than a 7 day course - thus making reinfection less common

DLMD · Answer

IMHO, I would go with E.

cost is no an issue here, so B is out of scope.


author argue "reinfection will probably be less common in cases where the new antibiotic is prescribed", and in E, it states patient will feel recovered by 3 days. If you use the drug for 3 days and feel recovered after 3 days, won't you think you have done your course of treatment? In this case, if you sick again, it's not reinfection. But if you feel recovered after 3 days and sick again within you 7 day course, that's reinfection.

hope I made my point clear.

anandnk · Answer

I believe it is (E)

Suppose patients are told that the new medicine has to be taken only for 3 days then the patients might treat it is a powerful medicine and just take it for 1 or 2 days and stop after that. 
(E) says that patients feel well after 3 days and hence will take any similar medicine atleast for 3 days. Hence the new medicine will be very effective.

banerjeea_98 · Answer

"E". It says that no matter what ppl feel good after 3 days, thus it can be concluded that it is this reason why ppl stop taking it after 3 days. As the new drug is effective even in 3 days compared with the old drug which takes 7 days, the new will be more effective in this scenario. So it strengthens.

rthothad · Answer

I would have gone with 'E' if it was talking only about the new treatment.
Since 'E' is saying regardless of which medicine one takes one feels better after 3 days, so if one takes penicillin and feels better after 3 days one will discontinue the medicine - isn't this the reason that a new medicine is proposed - anyway since the medicine has not been taken for its full course, reinfection is bound to happen - as mentioned in the passage, so how will this strengthen the conclusion.

anandnk · Answer

I will elaborate on my explanation given above.

The new medicine is prescribed and the patient is told to take it for 3 days. It is possible that the patient may not take the medicine for 3 days. In that case this medicine is as ineffective as the other two old medicines.
Why will a patient do such a thing. Obviously the patients stopped taking madicines because they felt better in whatever time it took them. If the patient felt better in 2 days after taking the new medicine the patient will stop taking the drug and the illness may not have been cured completely.

Suppose patients feel better in 3 days no matter which medicine they take then they are going to stop taking any medicine after 3 days.

Now compare what will happen in case of new medicine and old medicine.
The old medicine unfortunately has not cured the illness completely but the new medicine has . Hence the new medicince is  coincidentally  better given the behavior of the patients.
This convinces us that new medicine is better.

Rupstar · Answer

That was a nice explanation, i choose E too but simply because it is the one that can be most co-rellated with things said in the excerpt

rthothad · Answer

qhoc0010 can we have the OA & OE please

jpv · Answer

fully agree with anandnk. Anandnk, I love ur examples for CR questions. Really PRAGMATIC.. :-D

I hope I will also start thinking that way someday

.

anandnk · Answer

Hi jpv,

Thanks for the compliment. I am sure you will improve solving CRs by practice. I was also naive in the world of CRs.

Cheers,
Anand.

qhoc0010 · Answer

Good job. (E) is, of course, the OA.

The traditional treatment of strep infections has been a

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