FAR from helping, giving antibiotics to children infected with the food
poisoning bug E. coli O157:H7 actually increases their chances of
developing potentially fatal complications.
Phillip Tarr and his colleagues at the University of Washington School of
Medicine in Seattle looked at 71 children with diarrhoea caused by this
E. coli strain. Of the 9 children treated with antibiotics, 56 per cent
developed haemolytic-uraemic syndrome, in which organs fail due to the toxin
released by the bacteria. By contrast, only 8 per cent of 62 children who
weren鈥檛 given the drugs developed the syndrome (The New England Journal of
Medicine, vol 26, p 1930). The scientists think bacteria injured by the
drugs release more toxin into the gut.