Doctors should avoid prescribing antibiotics for children under one year of age, study says. These treatments are associated with a 60% increased risk of persistent asthma.
Antibiotics, not recommended for one year. A study, published in the May edition of the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, associates the taking of antibiotics in small children and the risk of asthma. The higher the dose of medication, the higher the risk, the researchers note.
Breathing difficulties and persistent asthma
More than 62,000 patients have been followed by a team from Harvard School of Medicine (Boston, Massachussetts, United States). The incidence of asthma as well as the use of antibiotics were studied and compared. Three forms of asthma have emerged: transient breathing difficulties – which appear and disappear before 3 years, late asthma – which starts after 3 years, and persistent asthma. One in five children developed one of these forms before the age of 7, evenly distributed among the three.
Almost half of the children followed (43%) received antibiotic treatment at least once during their first year. The majority had upper or lower respiratory tract infection. This treatment did not influence the onset of late asthma. On the other hand, it doubles the risk of transient breathing difficulties and increases the risk of persistent asthma by 60%. These data persist when children with asthma, respiratory tract infection or cystic fibrosis during their first year and premature infants are excluded from the analysis. Not surprisingly, children who contract a respiratory infection are at higher risk of developing asthma.
5 antibiotics = 5 times more risk of asthma
While this association does not prove that the antibiotics are the source of the problem, it is maintained when the doses of the drug increase. Children who receive 5 or more different antibiotics are at six times the risk of transient breathing difficulties, five times the risk of persistent asthma, and 40% higher risk of late asthma. These results should prompt pediatricians to prescribe as few antibiotics as possible to children under one year of age.
However, these drugs are not necessarily the culprit, according to a study published this May 15 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Researchers from the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) have demonstrated the presence of variations in many children placed on antibiotics before one year of age and asthma before the age of seven. They point out the importance of mutations in two genes in the region of chromosome 17: affected children are more at risk of receiving prescription antibiotics. According to the study, these patients are more susceptible to viral infections because their antiviral immunity is weak. It would be this “hidden factor” which would explain the association between antibiotics before one year and the development of asthma.
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