New Discovery About Infant's Ear Infection Will Change The Way Of Treatment Completely [STUDY]

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A new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine has revealed that short antibiotic treatment can cause great harm to infants who have ear infection. The study noted that when compared to long duration treatment, the short term treatment increases the risk and worsens the condition.

Antimicrobial use in the treatment of babies can affect their body and make them very sick, and can even be a major contributing factor to make the child's condition critical.

The findings of this new study could completely alter the treatment options doctors consider in the future. Doctors are now expected to treat babies who have ear infection in a completely different manner and to consider less use of antibiotics when it is comes to infants as it is considered harmful.

However, the scientist from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine has conducted a research on this topic. They conducted the study on 520 infants of aged between 6 and 23 months, so as to ascertain binding results on the study.

 The researchers divided the infants into two equal groups and then conducted the experiment. Both groups of infants were given an antibiotic treatment. The first group of babies were administered the antimicrobial course for the duration of 10 days while the second group was just for the period of 5 days, according to Sciencedaily.

The findings of the study was astonishing as the scientists discovered that the group of infants who were given a 5 days course of penicillin antibiotic had twice the risk with 36 percent chance of failure while the second group of infants' who were given a 10 days course including 5 days course of placebo, had only 16 percent chance of failure.

Given the concerns regarding overuse of antibiotics and increased antibiotic resistance, the trial was conducted to see if reducing the duration of antibiotic treatment would be equally effective along with decreased antibiotic resistance and fewer adverse reactions, the UPMC medical expert Alejandro Hoberman, MD says.

The results of the study clearly shows that for treating ear infections in infants between the age of 9 and 23 months, a 5-day course of antibiotic offers no benefit with regards to adverse events and antibiotic resistance, according to Forbes.

"Though we should be rightly concerned about the emergence of resistance overall for this condition, the benefits of the 10-day regimen greatly outweigh the risks," he added.