New Delhi, January 9 (IANS). Regarding the rampant use of antibiotics, the government has already given instructions to avoid taking antibiotics without doctor’s advice.
The country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also expressed concern over the excessive use of antibiotics in Mann Ki Baat, but now a research has revealed that consumption of antibiotics during pregnancy can increase the risk of Group B Streptococcus disease (GBS) in infants.
Group B streptococcus disease is caused by bacteria. It usually lives in the intestine or genitals but does not cause much harm, but if you are pregnant, the use of antibiotics increases the risk of contracting GBS bacteria. This can harm the newborn baby. Due to this, the immune system of the newborn baby may become weak and the baby may suffer from pneumonia or fever.
The study, conducted by an international team from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Antwerp in Belgium, showed that the use of antibiotics during pregnancy up to 4 weeks before delivery increases the risk of GBS disease in newborns. If a pregnant woman takes antibiotics in the beginning of the third trimester, the risk of group B streptococcus disease increases as the time of delivery approaches. It also affects the delivery of women.
“Exposure to antibiotics during pregnancy may increase the risk of GBS within four weeks postpartum. The early third trimester of pregnancy is a critical period of susceptibility, increasing the risk of the baby becoming infected,” the researchers said in a paper published in the Journal of Infection.
The team of researchers, using national registers, included all singleton births that occurred in Sweden from 2006 to 2016. National records were used for this. Of the 1,095,644 live-born singleton infants in the study, 24.5 percent were exposed to antibiotics. About 24.5 percent of these children were exposed to antibiotics before birth.
According to the researchers, this study is the first to examine prenatal antibiotic exposure in relation to the risk of GBS disease in newborns.
–IANS
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