A study conducted on roughly 450,000 children claims that taking antibiotics may double the risk of a child contracting juvenile arthritis. You might be aware that due to genetic causes about one quarter of children may develop arthritis, which means environmental triggers may also play an important role in the onset of the disease. After the study, the researchers claim that the more courses of antibiotics prescribed, the higher the associated risk and the risk was strongest within one year of receiving antibiotics. However, the antiviral and antifungal drugs have not been found to have any link to juvenile arthritis, suggesting that risk for arthritis is specific to antibacterial medicines.