BHUBANESWAR: A significant research that studied synbiotic trial to prevent sepsis during early stages of infancy has found that administration of oral probiotic preparation can reduce risks of neonatal death and blood infections by over 40 per cent.
The research by a team of Indian and US scientists was conducted in 149 randomly chosen villages of Odisha where over 4,500 neonates from Khurda and Sundargarh districts were part of the community study. While the two lead investigators were Odias, majority of the co-researchers were also from the State.As sepsis is a major reason behind infant mortality across the world, the outcome of the study could prove significant in the context of Odisha where neonatal mortality has remained a cause of administrative concern.
The project carried out the trial using an oral synbiotic preparation which combined Lactobacillus plantarum with fructooligosaccharide. At least 4,556 infants out of 7,089 births screened in the villages were enrolled for the study. The infants were 2 kg at birth with no sign of sepsis or other morbidity. They were monitored for 60 days.
The study was led by Odia paediatrician Dr Pinaki Panigrahi, currently Director of Center for Global Health and Development, University of Nebraska Medical Center in US. He is also a founding member of Bhubaneswar-based Asian Institute of Public Health (AIPH).
Former Head of Department of Paediatrics of SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, Dr Sailajanandan Parida, who was principal investigator in the project from the Indian side, said administration of the oral synbiotic preparation found that apart from reduction in sepsis risks, there was weight gain among the infants while lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) was also reduced. The synbiotic preparation was orally administered in the first week of birth when breastfeeding was underway. “Simply put, the colonisation of the good bacteria from the probiotic remained in the gut systems for over two months which reduced colonisation of the negative ones because eventually the intestinal system has a carrying capacity,” Dr Parida told this paper.
The study outcome which appeared in an international science journal says that the most interesting part about the research is the week-long treatment costs about $1 which proves that it is cost-effective even in resource-constrained settings.
“These findings suggest that a large proportion of neonatal sepsis in developing countries could be effectively prevented using a synbiotic containing Lactobacillus plantarum. The 42 per cent reduction in sepsis observed in the current study was more than twice the 20 per cent reduction anticipated, and permitted the data safety and monitoring board to terminate the trial early. LRTI constituted 72 per cent of our study outcomes. The significant reduction in LRTI found in the trial is as important as the prevention of clinical or culture-positive sepsis.
The substantial reduction in a variety of other infections further lends support to the value of this intervention,” the paper said. The co-researchers of the study included Dr Radhanath Satpathy, Dr Arjit Mohapatra, Dr Subhranshu Mohapatra and Dr Pravas R Misra, all from AIPH, Bhubaneswar, Lingaraj Pradhan, Pediatrician at Capital Hospital, Nimai Nanda, Pediatrician at Ispat General Hospital, Rourkela and Rama Chaudhry, Department of Microbiology,All India Institute of Medical Sciences,New Delhi.