In Niger, mass distribution of antibiotics proves effective: study

But the study does not provide a final answer to this question, as further research has shown a more mixed impact of this distribution.

A team of researchers from the University of California at San Francisco, UC Berkeley and The Carter Center had conducted a few years ago a first try in Niger and in other African countries, called MORDOR 1 , aimed at confirming whether the mbadive administration of azithromycin antibiotic to children under five, twice a year, reduced overall mortality.

The antibiotic is effective against several bacteria, including E. coli and trachoma, a serious infectious disease that blinds about two million people a year, according to the World Health Organization.

The WHO runs an extensive program that has distributed tens of millions of doses of azithromycin to the most affected countries.

As part of the MORDOR 1 trial, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, researchers found that infant mortality had decreased by 18% in treated Nigerian villages compared to those not receiving treatment or with children under placebos.

But scientists still had many questions: would continuing to distribute drugs year after year be even more beneficial? Or could it have the opposite effect of enhancing bacterial resistance?

For the next phase of the trial, MORDOR II, which began in its third year, all children under five in 594 communities received the antibiotic in oral suspension twice a year.

The results were clear, according to the paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine: although the impact did not increase, there was no evidence of a decreasing effect.

Resistance was observed in laboratories but had no impact on field mortality rates.

And the results were almost immediate: whether the villages received the antibiotic for the first time or that they were treated for the third consecutive year, mortality was reduced in similar proportions.

It remains to be seen whether resistance could develop in the longer term. The researchers will continue the experiment for another three years, said senior author Tom Lietman of the University of California at San Francisco. "We will know in about a year," he told AFP.