RESEARCHERS in Cork are investigating the possibility of using beneficial bacteria to fight infectious disease which continues to claim the lives of almost 10 million children in the developing world every year.
While many in the developed world believe the problem of infectious disease has been solved by vaccination and antibiotics, this is far from the case, according to Prof Colin Hill , principal investigator at the Alimentary Pharmabiotics Centre (APC) at University College Cork.
“Infection is still the major cause of childhood mortality in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. There is still a huge amount of infection in children there, a lot or diarrhoeal illnesses and a lot related to malnutrition,” said Prof Hill.
“In addition to these deaths, diarrhoea and malnutrition create a deadly cycle of infectious disease, which has lifelong consequences for the survivors in terms of life expectancy, intellectual capacity and even adult stature and work productivity.”
Prof Hill said that a child who is malnourished at the age of two will lose about 10cm of his adult height and 10 years of life expectancy. He will also be 10 IQ points lower than he should be and will become less productive in middle age.
Although the best way to prevent infection is through a combination of sanitation, good nutrition, antibiotics, vaccines and rehydration therapies, Prof Hill said this was very difficult to deliver in areas where people were surviving on a couple of dollars a day.
He and his team at the APC are investigating the use of beneficial bacteria as a low-cost, long-term strategy to break the disease cycle. The bacteria could be grown locally and used to improve the defence barrier of the gut and help the immune system.
Prof Hill said there was evidence that these probiotics do work, but they need to figure out how they would be grown and delivered locally to malnourished children. He pointed out that they were not a “magic bullet”, but could play a part of the long-term solution.
He will be speaking at an APC public forum on Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Infections, Food and Stress, which takes place at UCC tomorrow.
Dr Orla Craig of Cork University Hospital will address the forum on new insights and approaches into the link between irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), food and stress.
Dr Craig said people with IBS were typically told to eat a high-fibre diet, but she advised a gradual increase in fibre intake to avoid an exacerbation of symptoms.
She advised that if a person finds they are not feeling better after eliminating a food, then that particular food should be reintroduced.
The APC public forum takes place in lecture theatre G01, Brookfield Health Sciences Complex, College Road, Cork, tomorrow at 7pm.
