Probiotics cut the duration of fever in kids with throat infections

Researchers have found a way to reduce the duration of a child’s fever.

Upper respiratory tract infections are highly reported in the child population, with five to eight URTIs a year common in children, particularly in the first five years of life.

University of Milan researchers wanted to know if probiotics could help ease URTI symptoms in the same way they can alleviate gastrointestinal symptoms.

Researchers recruited 128 children aged between 28 days and four years for the clinical trial, with one group given a specific blend of three probiotic strains and the other group given a non-active placebo.

Children who had the probiotics had their fevers for two fewer days than those in the placebo group.

The researchers said this offered a way forward for reducing the “burden of these infections on physical and scholastic activities, school absenteeism, and hospitalisations”.