Antibiotics are drugs that are intended for the treatment of bacterial infections. If we speak in general terms, they destroy microorganisms and thereby stop their reproduction. At the same time, they affect not only pathogenic bacteria - useful microbes for the human body. Doctors try to prescribe antibiotics patients only as a last resort, because bacteria quickly learn to resist them and in the future drugs may lose efficiency. But sometimes antibiotics are given to small children, almost immediately after birth. Preparations are prescribed in cases where kids have signs of bacterial infection. Sometimes they are used to prevent sepsis. Recently, the international group of scientists decided to find out how antibiotics affect the organisms of young children. It turned out that drugs slow down growth, and the negative effect was noticed only in boys.
Sepsis is a blood infection that occurs with an excessive or insufficient reaction of the body's protective mechanisms for an infection. The infectious disease occurs when pathogenic bacteria penetrate into the human body and begin to multiply.
Harm antibiotics for children
The results of scientists conducted by scientists were published in the scientific journal Nature Communications. The purpose of scientists was to determine the long-term effects of antibiotic admission by newborns within two weeks after birth. As part of the scientific work, they studied data on 12,422 children aged from 0 to 6 years, which were born in one of the hospitals of Finland from 2008 to 2010. At their disposal were data on the growth and weight of children, as well as the presence or absence of bacterial infections. The infection suspicion was discovered in 1151 babies and they took antibiotics within 14 days from the birth. But subsequently, the diagnosis was confirmed only in 638 children - they continued to receive drugs, and the rest stopped receiving them.
During the study, it turned out that those who took the antibiotics of babies later observed a lack of growth and weight. Moreover, the slow development of the body has occurred throughout all six years of life. Perhaps the problems were further, but scientists had no data on the further state of the health of children. What is interesting, the problem turned out to be relevant only in the case of boys. Girls, who immediately took antibiotics after birth, did not subsequently had difficulties with growth and a set of sufficient weight.
See also: How dangerous to give children antibiotics?
Slow growth in children
According to scientists, growth slowdown occurs due to the fact that antibiotics are very strongly affected by the intestine microbi. In the human body lives a huge number of bacteria that help to digest food and extract nutrients from it. They also strengthen the immune system, thereby helping the body to protect against pathogenic bacteria. Apparently, the slowdown in the development of children's antibiotics is due to the fact that drugs killed all bacteria without parsing. As a result, their organisms could not obtain a sufficient amount of nutrients from food.
To test your theory, the researchers moved microbes from feces of children in the organisms of laboratory mice. As expected, mice with bacteria from the children who took antibiotics developed longer than the rest. According to the author of the study of Samuli Rautava, thus they first proved that the reception of antibiotics at an early age has long-term consequences, and very negative. Because of the drugs adopted in the first 14 years of life, people can suffer from low growth and lack of body weight. How to solve this problem is still unknown, because when suspected of bacterial infection, children must be treated.
Scientists are also wondering why such an effect is observed only among male representatives. At the moment they suggest that this is due to differences in the microbioma of boys and girls. Distinctive features can be seen already two days after birth.
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Since bacteria are constantly learning to resist antibiotics, scientists constantly develop new drugs. In September, Russian researchers have developed an "innovative" antibiotic, which is effective both against bacterial and against fungal infections. Read more about it in this material.