Researchers at Utrecht university medical centre say patients who died during a clinical trial into pancreas infections may have been killed by the particular probiotic they were given, according to medical journal The Lancet.

Twenty-four people (16%) treated with the food supplements died during trials between 2004 and 2007, compared with nine (6%) in the control group who were given a placebo.
The team found patients who took this combination of probiotics suffered from intestinal bleeding and said the chance of them developing infectious complications without the supplement was just 0.4%. Further research is continuing.