English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Background  In children, up to 30% of viral respiratory tract infections (RTIs) develop into bacterial complications associated with pneumonia, sinusitis or otitis media to trigger a tremendous need for antibiotics. This study investigated the efficacy of  Echinacea  for the prevention of viral RTIs, for the prevention of secondary bacterial complications and for reducing rates of antibiotic prescriptions in children.    Methods  Echinaforce® Junior tablets [400 mg freshly harvested  Echinacea purpurea  alcoholic extract] or vitamin C [50 mg] as control were given three times daily for prevention to children 4–12 years. Two × 2 months of prevention were separated by a 1-week treatment break. Parents assessed respiratory symptoms in children via  e -diaries and collected nasopharyngeal secretions for screening of respiratory pathogens (Allplex® RT-PCR).    Results  Overall, 429 cold days occurred in N ITT  = 103 children with  Echinacea  in comparison to 602 days in N ITT  = 98 children with vitamin C ( p  < 0.001, Chi-square test).  Echinacea  prevented 32.5% of RTI episodes resulting in an odds ratio of OR = 0.52 [95% CI 0.30–0.91,  p  = 0.021]. Six children (5.8%) with  Echinacea  and 15 children (15.3%) with vitamin C required 6 and 24 courses of antibiotic treatment, respectively (reduction of 76.3%,  p  < 0.001). A total of 45 and 216 days of antibiotic therapy were reported in the two groups, respectively (reduction of 80.2% ( p  < 0.001). Eleven and 30 events of RTI complications (e.g., otitis media, sinusitis or pneumonia) occurred with  Echinacea  and vitamin C, respectively ( p  = 0.0030).  Echinacea  significantly prevented influenza (3 vs. 20 detections,  p  = 0.012) and enveloped virus infections (29 vs. 47 detections,  p  = 0.0038). Finally, 76 adverse events occurred with  Echinacea  and 105 events with vitamin C ( p  = 0.016), only three events were reported possibly related with  Echinacea .    Conclusions  Our results support the use of Echinacea for the prevention of RTIs and reduction of associated antibiotic usage in children.   Trial registration  clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02971384, 23th Nov 2016.    Supplementary Information  The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40001-021-00499-6.

Echinacea reduces antibiotic usage in children through respiratory tract infection prevention: a randomized, blinded, controlled clinical trial