Moderate and transient impact of antibiotic use on the gut microbiota in a rural Vietnamese cohort. Moderate and transient impact of antibiotic use on the gut microbiota in a rural Vietnamese cohort.

This study aimed to examine the long-term consequences of repeated exposure to commonly use antibiotics on the fecal microbiota of residents living in a low-income setting with a high prevalence of antibiotic resistance. Fecal samples from household individuals (n=63) participating in a rural cohort in northern Vietnam were collected monthly for a period of 6 months. Using 16S V4 rRNA gene region amplicon sequencing and linear mixed-effects models analysis, we observed only a minor and transient effect of antibiotics on the microbial richness (ß = -31.3, 95%CI = -55.3, -7.3, p = 0.011), while the microbial diversity was even less affected (ß = -0.298, 95%CI -0.686, 0.090, p = 0.132). Our findings support the hypothesis that frequent antibiotic exposure may push the microbiota to a different steady-state that is less diverse but more resilient to disruption by subsequent antibiotic use.