Meningitis can be life threatening, but according to the study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases Researchers, nasal drops of a “good” bacterial strain can prevent you from this deadly disease.
Study author Robert Read from University of Southampton said, “It is the first time that anyone has taken a bug — a friendly bacterium — and has shown that it changes the way that you can become colonised by the meningitis bacterium, Neisseria meningitides (N meningitides).”
Fever, vomiting, headache and uneasiness are the initial symptoms of the disease. While conducting the study, researchers placed drops containing low doses of Neisseria lactamica, which is a harmless bacterial strain, into the noses of 149 healthy university students in Britain. On the other hand, a group of 161 students were give drops of saline. During the six months of this research, the scientist also tested nose swabs that were taken at regular intervals for both types of bacteria.
According to researchers, those students who received the N lactamica drops became colonized. They added that the harmless bacteria appeared to prevent N meningitides from colonising students’ throats. It is worth noting that these bacteria also removed the worrisome pathogen in the students who were already carrying it when the research has/was initially started.
And after just two weeks, the effect was noted when the number of students carrying N meningitidis in their upper airway came down by 9.5% among those who were also colonised by N lactamica using the drops. This effect lasted for at least four months, the researchers added.
The outcome of this study may help in developing a bacterial medicine to suppress meningococcal outbreaks.
