An innovative approach to the prevention and treatment of acute respiratory tract infections in children

Abstract

The problem of prevention and treatment of acute respiratory infections of the upper respiratory tract remains extremely at the top. Although viruses are the etiological factor in more than 90% of acute respiratory infections, the fact of the active use of antibiotics in the treatment of patients with this patology, along with the lack of effective antiviral agents can cause increasing concern, since this is assocatied with an increase in bacterial resistance, sensitization and inflammatory diseases and therefore requires the development of completely different alternative methods of treatment. Since the discovery of the human microbiome over the past two decades, not only the microbiota as a participant in the infectious process, but also probiotics as a factor in managing the immune responses of the macroorganism in viral infections have been actively studied. In addition, the antiviral activity of different probiotic strains has been demonstrated in the scientific literature, which explains the interest of the scientific community in the use of probiotics in acute respiratory infections, especially since probiotics have shown not only efficacy, but aalso high safety in patients of different age groups, including infants. Thus, the literature review showed that the currently available data both from clinical studies and experimental work on the use of probiotics in acute respiratory infections indicate the potential of such an innovative strategy not only for the prevention but also for the treatment of the acute period of the disease, which should be the basis for its wider use in real practice.