Mass antibiotic interventions— How can we assess the impact on gut microbiome at the community level?

Kathryn J. Ray, MA
PhD Candidate, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco

Title: Mass antibiotic interventions— How can we assess the impact on gut microbiome at the community level?

Summary: Antibiotics decrease diversity in the gut microbiota of an individual (α-diversity). Community-based interventions, such as mass distributions of antibiotics, could impact the diversity within a community (γ-diversity). We estimated the γ-diversity of a community using laboratory-pooled specimens. After validation, we tested the effect of mass antibiotic treatment on gut diversity in MORDOR, a recent cluster randomized trial of mass azithromycin.