A simple cocktail of pre- and probiotic would be effective in preventing 40% of child deaths from sepsis. Each year, 1 million deaths are recorded.
Few of these simple remedies have such positive effects. The combination of a probiotic – a living organism, bacteria or yeast, ingested for its beneficial effects on health – and a prebiotic – sugar promoting the selective growth of intestinal bacteria – is enough to prevent fatal cases of serious infections in infants, based on the results of a study from the University of Nebraska (USA) and published in the journal Nature.
The researchers tested an experimental treatment on more than 4,500 newborn babies from villages in the state of Odisha in India, a region particularly affected by infant mortality. They used a combination of Lactobacillus plantarum (the probiotic), a very common and harmless bacteria found in the body, the environment, or cheeses like feta, and fructooligosaccharide (the prebiotic), a sugar extracted from plants (bananas, onions, agave).
For a tiny dollar
After whether or not the treatment was given to infants two to four days old, the researchers observed hospital admissions. Among the children admitted for a microbial infection, 27 had not received the treatment, against just 6 for the others, yet just as numerous. Or an 82% reduction Respiratory infections were also reduced by more than a third.
And the result is far from trivial on the side of mortality: the cases of fatal infections decreased by 40%, from 9% in the control group to 5.4% in babies who had received the treatment. Spectacular efficiency, especially for a one-week treatment that costs… just a dollar!
Probiotics are fantastic
It took more than 10 years to set up the trial and process the results. “Our detractors told us that, given its complexity, we would never be able to complete this trial,” said Pinaki Pnigrahi, professor of epidemiology and pediatrics at the University of Nebraska, and lead author of the study. Now I take that as a compliment! “
Because, in addition to the discovery of a treatment that could help save part of the million babies killed by an infection in the first weeks of their life, the American study provides new proof of the importance of bacterial colonization on immune function. And therefore on survival in regions where infant mortality is high, as well as on health more generally.
Prof. Panigrahi is going to look for other effective prebiotics and probiotics on infections, but would also like to continue his research on prebiotics and preventive medicine, in wider fields of medicine. In a context of increasing antimicrobial resistance, their introduction and control could be life-saving.
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