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Sepsis is a major cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality, especially in developing countries. To test whether treating newborns in such regions with a probiotic plus a prebiotic (an agent that promotes probiotic growth and sustained colonization with the probiotic) would reduce cases of sepsis and neonatal deaths, investigators conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 4556 healthy newborns in 149 villages in rural India.
Beginning on day 2 to 4 of life, half of the infants received a synbiotic — the probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum combined with the prebiotic fructooligosaccharide — for 7 days, and half received placebo.
Of the 319 cases of sepsis, death, or both diagnosed during the first 60 days of life, …