A single dose of the antibiotic azithromycin may reduce the risk of postpartum sepsis and death in women planning a vaginal delivery by one-third, according to a recent large multinational clinical trial.
Azithromycin is a low-cost, broad-spectrum antibiotic commonly used to treat a variety of bacterial infections, including respiratory infections, skin infections, ear, nose, and throat infections, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). .
Although highly preventable, sepsis is the leading cause of maternal and neonatal death worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries. It is usually caused by severe prenatal bacterial infection of the uterus or infection shortly after birth and can lead to life-threatening organ dysfunction.
The randomized controlled azithromycin prevention of childbirth study (A-PLUS) enrolled 29,278 women planning vaginal delivery from low- and middle-income countries. Women were selected from countries such as Bangladesh, Guatemala, India, Pakistan and Zambia. The research was co-funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In this study, only 1.6% of women given 2 grams of azithromycin orally during labor developed sepsis or died within 6 weeks after delivery, compared with 2.4% of women in the placebo group. It turns out that it was. Results also showed that women who received azithromycin were less likely to develop endometriosis compared to women who received placebo, leading to hospital readmissions and unscheduled visits to a health care professional. showed that there was little
Azithromycin had no significant effect on the risk of stillbirth, neonatal sepsis, or neonatal death, which remained comparable between the azithromycin group (10.5%) and the placebo group (10.3%).
“We hope our findings will help improve maternal care in low- and middle-income countries around the world,” said Alan Tita, M.D., Ph.D., who co-led the trial.
“These findings have the potential to transform clinical practice by providing a safe, effective, and low-cost approach to reduce the global burden of maternal sepsis and mortality,” said NIH. said Diana Bianchi, Ph.D., director of the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) in ), the primary funder of the trial.
“There is an urgent need for effective strategies to prevent pregnancy-related infections, which account for approximately 10% of maternal deaths worldwide,” said Dr. Bianchi.
This research recently New England Journal of Medicine.
Source: National Institutes of Health
