New Delhi, April 5 || Babies treated with antibiotics in the first few weeks of their life are likely to show weaker immune responses to essential vaccines taken in childhood, according to a study.
Researchers from Flinders University in Australia explained that this is due to a decrease in the levels of Bifidobacterium -- a bacterial species that lives in the human gastrointestinal tract.
On the other hand, replenishing Bifidobacterium in the gut microbiome using probiotic supplements such as Infloran showed promising results in restoring the immune response, revealed the study published in the journal Nature.
“Our data suggest that microbiota-targeted interventions could mitigate the detrimental effects of early-life antibiotics on vaccine immunogenicity,” David J. Lynn from the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, at the varsity.
For the study, the team followed 191 healthy, vaginally born infants from their birth to 15 months. Of these 86 per cent infants received the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, and, by six weeks of age, began their routine childhood vaccinations.
Analysed of blood and stool samples revealed that children who were directly exposed to neonatal antibiotics, produced much lower levels of antibodies against multiple polysaccharides included in the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine or PCV13 vaccine.