Probiotic 'can cut C diff risk'

Experts found that drinking Actimel reduced the chance of people over 50 getting diarrhoea linked to the potentially-lethal bug. It also cut their risk of diarrhoea related to antibiotic treatment and researchers predicted it could save the NHS money.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), was led by Dr Mary Hickson, a research dietician at the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine in London.

Her team recruited 135 patients from Hammersmith, Charing Cross and Hillingdon hospitals in London. The patients had an average age of 74 and were receiving antibiotics for a range of conditions, including respiratory infection.

They were split into two groups, with one given Actimel and the other a longlife milkshake. The labels were removed from the bottles so none of the patients knew what they were drinking.

Each patient received their drink within 48 hours of starting antibiotic therapy. The drinks were then administered in 97ml doses twice a day, either half an hour before or one to two hours after meals.

The patients continued on the drinks for a week after the course of antibiotics was finished. Samples of any diarrhoea were taken away for analysis and the patients were followed up four weeks after the end of the study.

The results showed that, of 113 patients followed up, those given the probiotic drink had suffered far less diarrhoea. Only 12% developed antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, compared with 34% of the group given the longlife milkshake. No-one in the probiotic group had diarrhoea linked to C diff, compared with 17% in the longlife milkshake group.

C diff is responsible for around 15 to 25% of all cases of diarrhoea associated with antibiotic use, mostly occurring in older people after they have stopped taking their antibiotic course, the researchers noted.

Dr Hickson said: "We are not saying that a probiotic can cure C diff because the trial was to prevent the diarrhoea associated with it from happening. The trial found no cases of C diff diarrhoea among those who received the probiotic. It will reduce the risk of getting diarrhoea and this would apply not only to patients taking broad-spectrum antibiotics in hospital but also those taking them at home."