September 18, 2000

1 min read

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Day-Care Danger

By Kate Wong

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The day-care centers that millions of parents entrust their children to harbor a hidden danger. According to research presented this weekend at a conference organized by the American Society for Microbiology, such facilities foster the development and transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

In a two-year study of eight day-care centers, 240 toddlers and 46 of their siblings, Israeli scientists sampled Streptococcus pneumoniae, or strep, bacteria from the throats and noses of day-care kids and found that antibiotic treatment of the bacteria spurred the development of resistance traits. Furthermore, samples from the children¿s siblings revealed the same resistant strains, demonstrating that the antiobiotic-resistant bacteria can spread out from a day-care center and into the community.

Day-care facilities are associated with a high rate of respiratory infections. As a result, antibiotic use rate is high. That combined with toddlers¿ underdeveloped hygiene standards, team member Ron Dagan says, provides bacteria with the ideal conditions for developing such resistance.

Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and senior editor for features at Scientific American, where she has focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for nearly 30 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home to the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, as well as to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and a “Big Day” race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Wong is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow her on Bluesky @katewong.bsky.social

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