Rise in E. coli Is Found in Premature Infants

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http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/25/health/25INFE.html

Rise in E. coli Is Found in Premature Infants

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 In a dangerous boomerang effect apparently caused by antibiotics, E. coli is on the rise among premature babies and has overtaken strep as the most common infection in such infants, a new study suggests.

 

The shift is worrisome because E. coli bacteria can be more deadly than streptococcus germs.

The rate of Group B streptococcus blood infections in premature newborns fell by nearly three-quarters during the 1990's, probably because more women in labor took antibiotics to keep from passing the bacteria on to their babies during delivery, the researchers said.

But they added that during that same period, the rate of E. coli infections doubled, apparently because ampicillin, the antibiotic commonly used to wipe out strep, gave E. coli room to flourish.

The study, financed by the National Institutes of Health, is to be published today in The New England Journal of Medicine. It was led by Dr. Barbara J. Stoll of the Emory University School of Medicine.

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