Pregnancy antibiotics - no cause for concern
The researchers referred to data held in the Quebec Pregnancy Cohort. Containing detailed medical information on hundreds of thousands of pregnancies, in addition to the outcomes for mother and newborn alike, it's one of the world's largest cohort of its type. Information on the mother's use of pharmaceuticals - azithromycin and clarithromycin - was retrieved from Quebec's public pharmaceutical insurance program and was compared to the use of penicillin, a well tolerated antibiotic. "135,839 pregnancies met the criteria for inclusion in our study. Of these, 1.7% involved exposure to the macrolides during the first trimester, while 9.8% of pregnancies resulted in the child having a major congenital malformation. After statistical analysis, we found no meaningful association between the groups compared to penicillin use," Dr. Bérard and Professor Nordeng said.
The lack of previous clarity regarding the safety of these drugs may be due to overlooked confounding factors: for example, azithromycin is typically used to treat chlamydia infections, infections that are associated with birth defects. Nonetheless, the researchers underscore that wider studies will need to be undertaken in order to confirm the safety of less-often prescribed antibiotics.
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