is given orally. for this reason, the dose needs to be increased to 75 mg/kg/day when administered iv to achieve levels equivalent to the oral dose. oily oily chloramphenicol (or chloramphenicol oil suspension) is a long-acting preparation of chloramphenicol first introduced by roussel in 1954; marketed as tifomycine, it was originally used as a treatment for typhoid. roussel stopped production of oily chloramphenicol in 1995; the international dispensary association foundation has manufactured it since 1998, first in malta and then in india from december 2004. oily chloramphenicol was first used to treat meningitis in 1975 and numerous studies since have demonstrated its efficacy. it is the cheapest treatment available for meningitis (us$5 per treatment course, compared to us$30 for ampicillin and us$15 for five days of ceftriaxone). it has the great advantage of requiring only a single injection, whereas ceftriaxone is traditionally given daily for five days. this recommendation may yet change, now that a single dose of ceftriaxone (cost us$3) has been shown to be equivalent to one dose of oily chloramphenicol. eye drops chloramphenicol is used in topical preparations (ointments and eye drops) for the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis. isolated case reports of aplastic anaemia following use of chloramphenicol eyedrops exist, but the risk is estimated to be of the order of less than one in 224,716 prescriptions. in mexico, this is the treatment used prophylactically in newborns for neonatal conjunctivitis. veterinary uses although its use in veterinary medicine is highly restricted, chloramphenicol still has some important veterinary uses. it is currently considered the most useful treatment of chlamydial disease in koalas. the pharmacokinetics of chloramphenicol have been investigated in koalas.