Quantifying the Impacts of Antibiotic Prophylaxis on Antimicrobial Resistance

Gautam Dantas of Washington University in the U.S. will measure the effect of the routine use of antibiotics to treat severe malnutrition or to minimize the risk of HIV infection in young children, on the bacterial populations and antimicrobial resistance genes in the gut. These currently recommended clinical practices might promote the spread of antimicrobial resistance genes to pathogenic bacteria, making infections impossible to treat. They will analyze fecal samples taken at different time-points from 234 children as part of two completed trials in Nigeria and South Africa. The levels and types of bacteria and resistance genes will be quantified using whole genome shotgun sequencing, which might also identify new resistance genes.