Does your kid get constant ear infections? It may be "slime" in the middle ear:
A new study shows that chronic middle ear infections may be caused by a thin biofilm that coats the middle ear and forms a slime-like barrier that prevents the body’s natural defenses from fighting infection-causing bacteria.
“It appears that in many cases recurrent disease stems not from re-infection as was previously thought and which forms the basis for conventional treatment, but from a persistent biofilm,” says researcher Garth Ehrlich, Ph.D., executive director of the Allegheny-Singer Research Institute’s Center for the Genomic Sciences, in a news release.
Treatment of ear infections normally includes use of antibiotic drugs. But researchers say the results of this study may lead to a new approach in treating chronic middle ear infections.
“Given that bacteria living in biofilms are metabolically resistant to antibiotics, this study makes a definitive, scientifically based statement against the use of these drugs to treat children with chronic ear infections. It simply does not help the child and increases the risk of breeding more resistant strains of bacteria,” says Ehrlich.
Researchers say that probiotics may be how these kinds of ear infections should be treated. I love to see my own predelictions confirmed!
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