A
recent retrospective study has shown that an oral preparation of Streptococcus
salivarius K12 (SsK12) may be a good option for treating patients who have
group A beta-hemolytic streptococci (GABHS), especially those patients who require frequent antibiotic therapy. The
study was completed by Giuseppe Gregori, MD and colleagues, of the Primary Care
Department, in the Department of Health Science at the University of Genoa, Italy,
and was published in Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management on January 2016.
The
study assess retrospectively if SsK12 use in pediatric patients with recurrent group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal (GABHS) tonsillitis (RPTI) reduce the occurrence of GABHS relapses during the treatment
period, and during the following 12 months as well as compared to a group of
children with GABHS RPTIs not being treated with SsK12.
There
were 130 children in this study, 76 were treated with SsK12, and 54 were the
control group. The investigators found that the reduction of infections observed
in the SsK12-treated children was statistically higher than the controls.
Additionally, the children treated with SsK12 experienced significantly fewer
GABHS infections both during the initial 90 days of inclusion in the study, when
the treatment group received SsK12, and in the following 9 months.
The
authors noted that even though treatment with SsK12 oral preparation made the
need for antibiotic therapy against GABHS infections four times less likely,
the retrospective, observational study has less validity than a double-blind,
controlled, prospective, and randomized investigation. They recommended that further
studies and additional investigations would be performed on this topic.
Group A beta hemolytic streptococcal tonsillitis