Scientists show how antibiotics enable pathogenic gut infections

A new study could help pinpoint ways to counter the effects of the antibiotics-driven depletion of friendly, gut-dwelling bacteria. In the first 24 hours after administration of oral antibiotics, a spike in carbohydrate availability takes place in the gut, the study says. This transient nutrient surplus, combined with the reduction of friendly gut-dwelling bacteria due to antibiotics, permits at least two potentially deadly pathogens to get a toehold in that otherwise more forbidding environment.

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