Study Ties Common Antibiotics With Birth Defects

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NO drug used to be safe in pregnancy - now they give so many including

vaccines

Sheri

Thanks to Framson

The study is important because it looked

at drugs that have been used for decades without large studies of their

safety in pregnant women, said Dr. Katz of the March of

Dimes.

" Some physicians are not as attuned to this as they ought to be,

so patients have the right to ask questions, " Katz said.

Study Ties Common Antibiotics With Birth Defects

Study Links Some Antibiotics With Birth Defects; Others

Appear Safe For Fetus

Font size Print E-mail Share (AP) CHICAGO (AP) - Researchers studying antibiotics in

pregnancy have found a surprising link between common drugs used to treat

urinary infections and birth defects. Reassuringly, the most-used

antibiotics in early pregnancy - penicillins - appear to be the

safest.

Bacterial infections themselves can cause problems for the fetus if left

unchecked, experts said, so pregnant women shouldn't avoid antibiotics

entirely. Instead, women should discuss antibiotics choices with their

doctors.

The new study is the first large analysis of antibiotic use in pregnancy.

It found that mothers of babies with birth defects were more likely than

mothers with healthy babies to report taking two types of antibiotics

during pregnancy: sulfa drugs (brand names include Thiosulfil Forte and

Bactrim) and urinary germicides called nitrofurantoins (brand names

include Furadantin and Macrobid).

It was the first time an association had been seen between urinary tract

treatments and birth defects, said lead author Krista Crider, a

geneticist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which

funded the research. " Additional studies are going to need to be

done to confirm these findings. "

Used for many decades, the antibiotics in question predate the Food and

Drug Administration and its requirements for rigorous safety testing. The

FDA now grades all drugs for safety to the fetus based on available

research, but rigorous studies are so lacking in many cases, that no

antibiotics get the highest grade of " A. "

Sulfa drugs are the oldest antibiotics and some animal studies have found

harm during pregnancy. Nitrofurantoins previously have been viewed by

doctors as safe to treat urinary tract infections during

pregnancy.

The study, appearing in November's Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent

Medicine, may cause doctors to change the drugs they choose to treat

pregnant women with infections. The findings were released

Monday.

Dr. Mehnert-Kay, a family practice doctor in Tulsa, Okla., who has

written about diagnosing and managing urinary tract infections, said the

research is " very interesting " and would cause her to

reconsider antibiotic choices in early pregnancy.

The study is important because it looked at drugs that have been used for

decades without large studies of their safety in pregnant women, said Dr.

Katz of the March of Dimes.

" Some physicians are not as attuned to this as they ought to be, so

patients have the right to ask questions, " Katz said.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 13,000 mothers whose infants

had birth defects and nearly 5,000 women who lived in the same regions

with healthy babies.

The women were interviewed by phone from six weeks to two years after

their pregnancies. Those who remembered taking antibiotics during the

month before conception through the first three months of pregnancy were

identified as exposed to antibiotics.

The women's memories could have been faulty, a substantial weakness of

the study, which the authors acknowledged. About one-third of the women

who took antibiotics couldn't remember the specific type of drug they

took.

It's also unclear whether the birth defects were caused by the drugs or

by the underlying infections being treated, Crider said.

Birth defects linked to sulfa drugs included rare brain and heart

problems, and shortened limbs. Those linked to nitrofurantoins

(ny-troh-fyoor-AN'-toyns) included heart problems and cleft palate. The

drugs seemed to double or triple the risk, depending on the

defect.

" These defects are rare. Even with a threefold increase in risk, the

risk for the individual is still quite low, " Crider said.

Katz of the March of Dimes said anencephaly, a fatal brain problem linked

to sulfas, affects about 1 in 10,000 births in the United States. Cleft

palate occurs about 20 per 10,000 births.

Crider said the findings give doctors another opportunity to caution

against overuse of antibiotics. Viral illnesses like colds and flus

shouldn't be treated with antibiotics, she said.

Women in 10 states, including California, Texas and New York, were

interviewed as part of the National Birth Defects Prevention

Study.

The FDA recommends that pregnant women discuss medications with their

doctors, said FDA spokeswoman Sandy Walsh. The agency has proposed

changes to prescription drug labeling that would require more complete

information for women of childbearing age, pregnant women and those who

breastfeed, Walsh said.

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

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