How the antibiotics are linked to gut bacteria?

Kids taking a particular kind of antibiotics are called macrolides and these are used for the treatment of an infection and may suffer some alterations in their gut bacteria, according to a new study. Any kid can be given more than 2 kinds of macrolides in their first 2 years of life and they might be facing a greater risk of developing overweight later in their childhood years according to a study. As a whole, it may be that the gut microbiota recovery coming from the antibiotic treatment will take more than a year. The study conducted by the University of Helsinki said in an interview that if a kid gets a repeated course of antibiotics during the 1st year of life, the microbiota might not have enough time to fully recover.

The kind of antibiotics being given to kids

Macrolides that include azithromycin & erythromycin are both used for the treatment of lung as well as chest infections. They are typically used in people who are actually allergic to the antibiotic penicillin.  In the research made in 142 Finnis kids’ ages 2-7 years old, the researchers looked at how many courses of antibiotics the kids had taken in their lifetime and the composition of gut bacteria.  They also made a research about the risk of the kids in having asthma or in being obese.  They have discovered that from the kids who took the macrolides in the past 2 years, there were dissimilarities in the composition of the gut bacteria, this is when compared with the kids who never took the antibiotics.

The dissimilarities went on since the kids took the antibiotics that last for 2 years. The similar alterations were linked to the rise of the risk in the development of obesity and other immune associated ailments in the past studies of animals and adults according to the researchers.  On the other hand, when you take the penicillin or somehow linked to antibiotics may be weaker in terms of impact and on the components and functioning of the microbiome than the macrolides.

The new findings sustain the recommendation to prevent the use of macrolides as the principal antibiotics among kids and to restrict all the antibiotics for when they are truly needed according to the researchers.  The antibiotics must not be used for the treatment of infections that can be treated on their own and thus it must never be used in any case, however. In terms of the use of antibiotics in kids, it is essential to look for the right balance, according to a doctor and an assistant in the Division of Allergy in NYC who wasn’t involved in the research conducted. Even if overused the said medicines or using them in a short span of time, it is not good, it is still suitable to prescribe them if the kid truly needs them, the doctor added