Dataset Information

Prenatal food insecurity post Hurricane Maria is associated with decreased Veillonella in the infant gut.

ABSTRACT: Background:Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on 20 September 2017 causing catastrophic devastation. Prolonged shortage of food had been a substantial challenge to the residents after Maria. Experiencing food insecurity in utero has been associated with negative health outcomes later in life. We aim to examine whether there is any alteration in the infant gut microbiome that is associated with prenatal food insecurity.

Methods:We established a cohort of infants aged 2-6 months who were exposed in utero to Hurricane Maria near San Juan, Puerto Rico and examined the gut microbiota (n?=?29) using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing.

Results:Among the enrolled infants, 30% of their mothers experienced "post-Maria poor access to food" for at least 1 month during pregnancy. The relative abundance of gut Veillonella spp. is significantly decreased among infants who experienced prenatal food insecurity, compared to those who did not (adjusted p?=?0.025). There is no significant difference observed by prenatal food insecurity at the microbial community level in this cohort.

Conclusions:Our finding indicated that infants who experienced prenatal food insecurity post hurricane harbor microbial alternations of specific bacterial taxa, which may further influence the microbial maturation and place the individual at a high-risk health trajectory.

Impact:We identified that in utero exposure to food insecurity post Hurricane Maria is associated with decreased abundance of Veillonella in the infant gut. Our findings indicated that infants who experienced prenatal food insecurity post hurricane may harbor alterations of specific bacterial taxa in their gut microbiota. This study showed the association between prenatal adverse exposure and alterations of gut microbiome early in life in the context of an extreme event. This study provided insights into the mechanisms underlying prenatal adverse exposure and increased disease risks later in life. Our findings will potentially raise awareness of the negative impact of extreme climate events on the unborn.

SUBMITTER: Wang L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7492397 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Prenatal food insecurity post Hurricane Maria is associated with decreased Veillonella in the infant gut.

Wang Leyao L de Ángel Solá David D Acevedo Flores Midnela M Schriefer Andrew A Wang Leran L Gerónimo López Kamil K Chang Alison A Warner Barbara B Shan Liang L Holtz Lori R LR Rosario Matos Nicolás N

Pediatric research 20200314 6

<h4>Background</h4>Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on 20 September 2017 causing catastrophic devastation. Prolonged shortage of food had been a substantial challenge to the residents after Maria. Experiencing food insecurity in utero has been associated with negative health outcomes later in life. We aim to examine whether there is any alteration in the infant gut microbiome that is associated with prenatal food insecurity.<h4>Methods</h4>We established a cohort of infants aged 2-6 months who ...[more]

PMID: 32172280

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Project description:The gut microbiome is a potentially important mechanism that links prenatal disaster exposures with increased disease risks. However, whether prenatal disaster exposures are associated with alterations in the infant's gut microbiome remains unknown. We established a birth cohort study named Hurricane as the Origin of Later Alterations in Microbiome (HOLA) after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017. We enrolled vaginally born Latino term infants aged 2 to 6 months, including n = 29 infants who were exposed in utero to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and n = 34 infants who were conceived at least 5 months after the hurricane as controls. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing was performed on infant stool swabs. Infants exposed in utero to Hurricane Maria had a reduced diversity in their gut microbiome compared to the control infants, which was mainly seen in the exclusively formula-fed group (P = 0.02). Four bacterial species, including Bacteroides vulgatus, Clostridium innocuum, Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum, and Clostridium neonatale, were depleted in the exposure group compared to the control group. Compositional differences in the microbial community and metabolic genes between the exposure and control groups were significant, which were driven by the formula feeding group (P = 0.02 for the microbial community and P = 0.008 for the metabolic genes). Metabolic modules involved in carbohydrate metabolism were reduced in the exposure group. Prenatal maternal exposure to Hurricane Maria was associated with a reduced gut commensal and an altered microbial composition and metabolic potential in the offspring's gut. Breastfeeding can adjust the composition of the gut microbiomes of exposed infants. IMPORTANCE Climate change is a serious issue that is affecting human health. With more frequent and intense weather disasters due to climate change, there is an urgent need to evaluate and understand the impacts of prenatal disaster exposures on the offspring. The prenatal stage is a particularly vulnerable stage for disease origination. However, the impact of prenatal weather disaster exposures on the offspring's gut microbiome has not been evaluated. Our HOLA study starts to fill this knowledge gap and provides novel insights into the microbiome as a mechanism that links prenatal disaster exposures with elevated disease risks. Our major finding that reduced microbial diversity and altered metabolic capacity are associated with prenatal hurricane exposures warrants further studies to evaluate the impact of weather disasters on the unborn.

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Project description:BackgroundAfter its landfall in Puerto Rico in 2017, Hurricane Maria caused the longest blackout in United States history, producing cascading effects on a health care system that had already been weakened by decades of public sector austerity and neoliberal health reforms. This article addresses how health care professionals and administrators experienced the health care system's collapse and the strategies used by them to meet their communities' health needs.MethodsData were collected between September 2018 and February 2020. Ethnographic observations in health care facilities and semi-structured qualitative interviews with representatives of the health care system were conducted. This paper focuses on data from interviews with health care providers (n = 10) and administrators (n = 10), and an ethnographic visit to a pop-up community clinic. The analysis consisted of systematic thematic coding of the interview transcripts and ethnographic field notes.ResultsResults provide insight on how participants, who witnessed first-hand the collapse of Puerto Rico's health care system, responded to the crisis after Maria. The prolonged power outage and lack of a disaster management plan were partly responsible for the death of 3,052 individuals who experienced extended interruptions in access to medical care. Participants reported a sense of abandonment by the government and feelings of mistrust. They also described the health sector as chaotic and lacking clear guidelines on how to provide services or cope with personal crises while working under extreme conditions. In such circumstances, they developed resilient responses to meet communities' health needs (e.g., itinerant acupuncture services, re-locating physicians to local pharmacies).ConclusionsParticipants' narratives emphasize that the management of Hurricane Maria was fraught with political and economic constraints affecting Puerto Rico. Ineffective planning and post-Maria responses of the local and federal governments were determinants of the disaster's impact. The findings contribute to a growing scientific literature indicating that Hurricane Maria revealed 'the collapse before the collapse,' alluding to the structural deficiencies that presaged the catastrophic event. In the context of governmental abandonment, the authors argue for the importance of developing alternative strategies in post-disaster health care provision among health professionals and administrators who work at the front lines of recovery.

Dataset Information

Prenatal food insecurity post Hurricane Maria is associated with decreased Veillonella in the infant gut.

Publications

Prenatal food insecurity post Hurricane Maria is associated with decreased Veillonella in the infant gut.

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