Immunization Rates Don't Affect Allergy Prevalence

Note – It is not clear from this article whether or not the control group was NEVER vaccinated children. Unless it was they were comparing the vaccinated to the vaccinated and have proved nothing. - SM

Immunization Rates Don't Affect Allergy Prevalence

NEW YORK Jun 29 (Reuters Health) - Despite suggestions to the contrary, increased immunization for tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) and measles is not linked to a higher rate of allergy-related disease in childhood, according to a multinational research team.

The new findings contradict a theory known as the ``hygiene hypothesis,'' which says that the drop in childhood infections due to vaccinations and better hygiene is linkedto an increase in allergy-related illnesses, such as asthma.

In the new study, Dr. H. Ross Anderson, from St. George's Hospital Medical School in London, and colleagues assessed the immunization rates at 91 centers in 38 countries and correlated them to the prevalence of allergic disease in children ages 6 to 7 years. A similar analysis of 99 centers in 41 countries was done for 13- to 14-year-old children.

Allergic illnesses, also known as atopic disease, include hay fever, asthma and the skin condition eczema.

In the older age group, higher local immunization rates for DTP and measles, but not tuberculosis, were actually tied to a significant decrease in allergic illness symptoms, the authors state. No significant association was noted in the younger age group, and there was no association between allergic disease and national immunization rates, they note in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health: Journal of the American Public Health Association (news - web sites). ``Our findings are contrary to the hypothesis that pertussis vaccine is a risk factor for atopic disease at the population level,'' the investigators point out. ``The available epidemiologic evidence suggests that measles immunization is not associated with an increased incidence of atopic disorders,'' they add. ``We also found no association between tuberculosis coverage and the population prevalence of atopic disease.''

The current findings are ``reassuring, because mass immunization is an important component of disease prevention worldwide,'' the researchers state.

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health 2001;91:1126-1129.

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