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Baby study links antibiotics to asthma
http://www.newscientist.com/news/pri...?id=ns99994212
Baby study links antibiotics to asthma 15:48 30 September 03 NewScientist.com news service Babies given antibiotics during the first six months of their lives are far more likely to develop asthma, according to a US study. Why is not clear, but the team claims antibiotics might be partly responsible for the steady rise in asthma cases in western countries. A handful of studies have blamed antibiotics, but most are suspect because they relied on the memories of parents years after events. Instead, Christine Johnson's team at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit followed 448 children from birth to age seven, regularly checking on their health. Nearly the half of the children were given antibiotics in their first six months, a quarter had two courses and a fifth had three or more. At the end of the study, tests revealed that 21 of the children had developed allergic asthma, in which attacks are triggered by environmental factors. Overall, children given antibiotics in their first half-year were 2.6 times more likely to develop allergic asthma, the team told a meeting of the European Respiratory Society on Tuesday. With broad-spectrum antibiotics, which kill a wide range of bacteria, the risk was far higher: children were 8.9 times more likely to suffer from asthma. Johnson speculates that the drugs disrupt the developing immune system because they alter the bacterial communities in the gut. This might make it more difficult for a baby's immune system to learn which bacteria are good and which are bad. The findings fit in with a large body of evidence on the origin of childhood asthma, known as the hygiene hypothesis, says Thomas Kovesi at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa. "The cleaner you make things, the greater the risk of allergy," he says. "The immune system gets bored." Pet protection The new study also found that the more courses of antibiotics children were given, the greater the risk. And known risk factors for asthma, such as having a mother with asthma or having fewer than two household pets, seemed to amplify the effect. A child who was given broad-spectrum antibiotics and whose family had no pets faced 11.5 times the risk of allergic asthma. But even though Johnson's study is better designed than previous ones, not everyone is convinced. Since so many of the children being treated with antibiotics were ill with respiratory tract infections, it might be that the infections, not the antibiotics, triggered the asthma, cautions Wilfried Karmaus at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Or it may just be that children prone to asthma are more prone to respiratory infections. In his own unpublished study of 600 children from birth to age three, Karmaus also found a link between asthma and antibiotics - but it disappeared when these factors were allowed for. But Johnson stands by her findings. Although the numbers are relatively small, she claims the effect still holds true when all the children with respiratory tract infections are excluded. Even children treated for non-respiratory illnesses such as kidney infections had a higher risk of developing allergic asthma. Alison Motluk |
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Baby study links antibiotics to asthma
"Ilena" wrote in message ... http://www.newscientist.com/news/pri...?id=ns99994212 Baby study links antibiotics to asthma 15:48 30 September 03 NewScientist.com news service Babies given antibiotics during the first six months of their lives are far more likely to develop asthma, according to a US study. Why is not clear, but the team claims antibiotics might be partly responsible for the steady rise in asthma cases in western countries. Key words: "might be", "partly responsible." It may very well be that kids who are likely to have asthma also become more symptomatic with minor respiratory infections and are prescribed more antibiotics because they are sicker. There may be no causal role between antibiotics and asthma. Jeff (...) |
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