The antibiotic reduces the risk of developing a dangerous and fatal disease among children.
In a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, a group of international experts found that penicillin therapy can lower the risk of rheumatic heart disease in children and adolescents.
This is a dreadful disease that claims the lives of over 306,000 individuals per year around the world.
The GOAL trial included 818 Ugandan children and adolescents between the ages of five and seventeen who had been diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease.
The GOAL trial included 818 Ugandan children and adolescents aged five to seventeen years with rheumatic heart disease. They were split into two teams.
Participants were randomly recruited to either receive injections of penicillin G benzathine (commonly known as benzylpenicillin) every four weeks for two years or no prophylaxis.
The ultrasound scan showed that three out of 399 participants in the experimental group had complications of rheumatic heart disease.
“The results of the study show that for 13 children who have been treated for two years, one will be able to prevent the development of the disease,” the scientists concluded.
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