Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Allergy
Article Date: 28 Oct 2011 - 6:00 PDT
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In a new radical investigation, doctors at Southampton's teaching hospitals aim to stop the rising allergy epidemic by exposing babies under the age of one to dust mites. According to their theory, exposing them to the prevalent allergen whilst their immune systems are developing should prevent them from becoming allergic in the future. Dust mites are tiny bugs that often live in carpets, mattresses, pillows and upholstered furniture.
The study, which is being carried out at the respiratory biomedical research unit at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and the David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Center at St Mary's Hospital on the Isle of Wight, will involve a total of 120 babies aged between five to nine months who have a family history of allergy.
In the UK as many as 1 in 4 individuals will be affected by an allergy at some period in their lives, with children making up for half of all those affected. Dust mites are the most common trigger for allergies and can produce at least 15 different allergens each, causing reactions in 85% of children with asthma.
Professor Graham Roberts, a specialist in respiratory and allergy medicine at UHSFT and reader in child health at the University of Southampton explains:
"Although we still do not know why more children are suffering from asthma, eczema, hay fever and food allergy, we do know that children born in families with asthma and allergic disease are at a higher risk of developing them.Therefore, we hope that by giving babies a common allergen when their immune systems are working out what is and isn't harmful will allow us to teach their bodies to accept it and not become susceptible as they grow older."
Professor Hasan Arshad, director of the David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Center, added:
"We believe we need to act very early in life - well before babies reach their first birthday - to be effective and, if we are correct, this should reduce the development of asthma and other allergies."
Staff are still recruiting and any parents interested in helping are urged to contact the teams at Southampton General Hospital (023 8079 4989) or St Mary's Hospital (01983 552 147) for more information.
Written by Grace Rattue
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
MLA
9 Dec. 2011.
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