Correction to: Infect Dis Ther (2020) 9:275–290 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40121-020-00289-3

In the original publication, there was a minor mistake in one of the figures and a number of reference citation numbers were incorrectly published. The figure and citations are corrected here:

Page 5/16—Fig. 4

The reference of Fig. 4 is Dang et al. [20] instead Parola et al. [19].

Fig. 4
figure 4

Effect of OM-85 on IFN-β production at different concentrations (40 to 640 mcg/ml). The increase on IFN-beta production correspond with the increasing concentration of OM-85. ***p ≤ 0.001. These in vitro results represent mean ± SD (n = 3 techinal replicates). Reference: Dang et al. [20]

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Page 5/16—Downregulation in chronic inflammatory state

The sentence “by decreasing the levels of proinflammatory cytokines (e.g. interleukin [IL]-1b) in a dose-dependent manner [24]” should be referenced by Dang et al. [20] instead of [24].

Page 6/16—Fig. 5

The x axis title on the right side bar in the Fig. 5 should correspond to 10 day post infection and not 5.

Fig. 5
figure 5

Effect of OM-85 against viral infections in an in vivo infection model. The viral load in lung tissue was determined on day 5 and 10 post-influenza virus infection. Data are representative of 2–5 experiments with 5–10 mice per time point. Error bars represent minimum to maximum value range. Statistical analysis was performed by Student’s t test. ***p < 0.001. Reference: Pasquali et al. [21]

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Page 6/16—Downregulation in Chronic Inflammatory State

  1. 1.

    The sentence “and increasing the levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines (e.g. IL-10) [20], thus reducing tissue damage” should be referenced by Parola et al. [19] instead of Dang et al. [20].

  2. 2.

    In the sentence, “OM-85 may also aid maturation of the immune system in children by correcting Th1/Th2 imbalance through increasing Th1 cytokines (IFN-γ) increasing Treg cytokines (IL-10) and decreasing Th2 cytokines (IL-4, IL-5, IL-13) [18, 24].”, reference Esposito et al. 2018 [16] should be added.


Page 7/16—Efficacy of OM-85 in Children

  1. 1.

    The sentence, “In children affected by rRTIs in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the proportion of RTI-free patients (the primary endpoint) was significantly higher in the OM-85-treated group compared with the placebo group (see Fig. 7) with total infections 35% lower with OM-85 versus placebo in all children in the study and 28% lower in children aged\6 years [33].” should be referenced by Paupe. Respiration 1991.[29] instead of [33].

  2. 2.

    The sentence “OM-85 has also been associated with fewer RTIs than placebo (143 versus 299; difference of 52%; p\0.001; primary endpoint) at 6 months in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in girls aged 6–13 years [35]. OM-85 also reduced the number of infections in each patient from 494 to 143, with placebo reducing the number of infections from 509 to 299 (p\0.001, for both comparisons) [35]. There were fewer infections at each month with OM-85 compared with placebo (p\0.05, at months 2, 3, 4 and 6) [35]. OM-85 has also been reported to reduce antibiotic use, time to cure and school absenteeism; see Fig. 8 [35].” Should be referenced by Jara-Perez et al. [31] instead of [35].

  3. 3.

    The sentences “OM-85 was also shown to significantly reduce the number and duration of acute RTIs (primary endpoint), with 131 acute RTIs in paediatric patients who received OM-85 compared with 224 in those who received placebo in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study [36]”. And “The mean RTIs per patient were significantly lower with OM-85 at 12 months: 5.0 vs. 8.0 (p\0.001), 38% lower (all patients) and 4.9 vs. 8.3 (p\0.01), 41% lower (patients aged under 6 years). The total duration of acute RTIs was significantly lower with OM-85 compared with placebo: median 30.5 vs. 55.0 days (p\0.001), 45% lower (all patients). A higher proportion of children (57% higher; p\0.001) without recurrences (fewer than six acute RTIs) and less antibiotic consumption (44% less; p\0.001) was also reported with OM-85 [36]”. Should be referenced by Gutierrez-Tarango et al. [32] instead of [36].


Page 8/16—Efficacy of OM-85 in Children

  1. 1.

    The sentence, “In the meta-analysis published by Schaad, a 35.5% decrease in the overall mean number of paediatric acute RTIs was demonstrated with OM-85 compared with placebo [37].” Should be referenced by Schaad et al. 2010 [33] instead of [37].

  2. 2.

    The sentence “This was confirmed in 2012 in an updated meta-analysis in 852 children performed by the Cochrane collaboration group in which the immunomodulatory OM-85 was shown to significantly reduce total acute RTIs by 35.9% [38].” should be referenced by De-Rio-Navarro et al. 2012 [34] instead of [38].


Page 9/16—Concomitant Use of OM-85 and Inactivated Influenza Vaccine /OM-85 and Virus-Induced Wheezing

  1. 3.

    “Follow-up for 14 days after vaccination with IIV given with or without OM-85 showed that OM-85 administered with IIV was well tolerated in the short term [39].” Should be referenced by Esposito et al. 2015 [35] instead of [39].

  2. 4.

    “The impact of treatment observed after 3 months was maintained for 12 months after the prescription, which shows OM-85 prevents wheezing attacks in young children [40].” should be referenced by Razi et al. 2010 [36] instead of [40].


Page 10/16—Recurrent Acute Otitis Media

  1. 1.

    “Although only a small number of cases of otitis media were reported in the children in two randomised, placebo-controlled studies (8/99 and 25/100 [35] and 3/26 and 14/28 [36] in the OM-85 and placebo groups, respectively),…” should be referenced by Jara-Perez et al. 2000 [31] and Gutierrez-Tarango et al. 2001 [32] respectively, instead of [35] and [36]


Page 11/16—Chronic Rhinosinusitis / Acute Tonsillitis

  1. 1.

    “In a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial including 55 children aged 4–12 years with acute exacerbation of CRS, OM-85 significantly decreased the number (by 65%) and the total duration (by 64%) of acute episodes after 6 months compared with placebo [27].” Should be referenced by Zagar 1988 [25] instead of [27].

  2. 2.

    “After a median of 9 months’ follow-up, no tonsillectomy was required in [ 50% of treated patients [47].” Should be referenced by Bitar 2013 [44] instead of [47].

  3. 3.

    “A total of 75.6% patients treated and followed up responded to treatment [total response (no new episodes or recurrent tonsillitis), 51.2%; partial response (reduced re-exacerbation), 24.4%]” the “]” at the end of the sentence should be removed.


Page 12/16—Safety and Tolerability of OM-85 / Discussions and conclusions

  1. 1.

    “OM-85 was also well tolerated when administered in combination with IIV, did not interfere with antibody titres of vaccine and had no observed effect on humoral immunity [39].” Should be referenced by references [35, 38, 39] instead of [39] only.

  2. 2.

    “Meta-analysis of studies with available databases indicate that immunomodulators are not very effective in the prevention of an occasional acute RTI but are in the prevention of recurrent infection [37, 38, 46].” References should be [33, 34, 46] instead of [37, 38, 46].