Mastitis is always an unwelcome guest for breastfeeding mothers. New treatments for mastitis involving the administration of probiotics instead of antibiotics have been successfully used to outsmart bacterial multiresistance to antibiotics, biofilm formation, and other mechanisms used by tricky bacteria to evade treatment. However, might there be a way to prevent mastitis from appearing to begin with? Researchers administered Lactobacillus salivarius PS2 to mothers in late pregnancy who had experienced infectious mastitis after a previous pregnancy. The occurrence of mastitis in those mothers in the probiotic group was significantly lower than in the control group who had only received a placebo. Oral administration of L. salivarius PS2 in late pregnancy appeared to be an efficient method to prevent infectious mastitis in a susceptible population.
Fernandez L, et al. Prevention of infectious mastitis by oral administration of Lactobacillus salivarius PS2 during late pregnancy. Clin Infect Dis 2016; 62:568-573.