When UC San Francisco research showed that routinely treating children in Sub-Saharan Africa with a common antibiotic could reduce deaths in children under five, the World Health Organization (WHO) moved quickly to recommend the treatment – but only for infants between 1 and 11 months old. Now, UCSF researchers have shown that treating babies is not enough. The antibiotic must be given to all children up to 5 years old to realize its full benefit, which is considerable: It lowers child mortality by 14% in a region where 1 in 10 children die before they turn 5.
WHO recommended limiting use of the antibiotic, azithromycin, out of concerns that broader administration would give rise to antibiotic resistance . But the research shows that the youngest and most vulnerable children – those less than a year old – gain greater protection from respiratory and other potentially lethal infections if their older siblings also are treated, so they do not transmit these infections. The results are very clear.
By treating the older kids you can protect the younger children, who are particularly vulnerable." Kieran S. O'Brien, PhD, MPH, study's first author, epidemiologist and assistant professor with the Francis I.
Proctor Foundation at UCSF The findings appear online Aug. 21 in the New England Journal of Medicine . Concerns over antibiotic resistance Azithromycin is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that works against a wide array of pathogens, including those responsible for respiratory in.