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Probiotics and Infection Prevention

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Infection Prevention

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Abstract

Increasing interest in the clinical use of probiotics in the United States is driven both by consumer enthusiasm for products marketed to have potential health benefits and by researchers inspired by the potential to prevent, treat, and mitigate disease. A limited number of studies have examined the use of probiotics as a potential tool in the antimicrobial resistance crisis. These studies include trials using probiotics to eliminate vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus colonization and to prevent multidrug-resistant organisms. These topics, along with the safety of probiotics in the healthcare setting, will be discussed in detail in this chapter. Results have been mixed, leading to ongoing controversy regarding the utility of probiotics in these settings. The conversation is limited by the quality of published studies. Specifically, there is an overall lack of uniformity in nearly all elements of study design which makes generalizability of results difficult for clinicians.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Internal Medicine, Tufts Medical Center, 800 Washington Street, Boston, MA, 02111, USA

    Whitney Perry

  2. Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Disease, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Shira Doron

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  1. Whitney Perry
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  2. Shira Doron
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Correspondence to Whitney Perry .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. VCUHS Epidemiology and Infection Control, North Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, USA

    Gonzalo Bearman

  2. Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

    Silvia Munoz-Price

  3. University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Daniel J. Morgan

  4. Department of Medical Affairs and Division of Infectious Diseases, Cedars-Sinai Health System, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Rekha K. Murthy

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© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

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Perry, W., Doron, S. (2018). Probiotics and Infection Prevention. In: Bearman, G., Munoz-Price, S., Morgan, D., Murthy, R. (eds) Infection Prevention. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60980-5_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60980-5_22

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60978-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60980-5

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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