Antibiotic Found to Have No Effect on Premature Birth

Although an infection called bacterial vaginosis is associated with premature birth, treating infected mothers with antibiotics, surprisingly, does not reduce pre-term births, researchers from the University of Oklahoma report in today’s New England Journal of Medicine. Bacterial vaginosis affects about 800,000 pregnant U.S. women each year, and about 10% of them give birth prematurely.

Dr. Mark Klebanoff and his colleagues treated 953 pregnant women with the antibiotic metronidazole and 966 with a placebo. Although the infection was eliminated in 77% of those receiving antibiotic and only 37% of those who received the placebo, about 12% of the women in both groups gave birth prematurely.

--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II