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Expanding antibiotic treatment in sub-Saharan Africa could save kids’ lives

Current guidelines limit treatment to infants, but they fare better when older kids are treated too

two kids

Prescribing widespread antibiotics to children under age 5 in Niger reduced mortality among infants. Expanding current guidelines for sub-Saharan Africa to this age group could save kids’ lives.

Frans Lemmens/Corbis Unreleased/Getty Images

By Anna Gibbs

In some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 10 percent of children die before they turn 5 years old (SN: 8/3/22); in 2022 alone, around 2.8