Bacteria in house dust may actually protect babies against developing allergies. Numerous reports suggest that hygiene measures in modernized societies may be partly responsible for the increased occurrence of (asthma-related) diseases in these populations.
The authors point out that allergies and asthma are less common in farm children, children with cats, dogs or pigs in their homes, children who begin day care at an early age, and children from large families. They suggest that common house dust contains bacterial endotoxin, a component from the cell walls of certain bacteria, which may cause changes in the infants immune systems and these changes reduce the risk of developing allergies.
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Investigators analyzed the house dust from the homes of 61 babies aged 9 to 24 months, all of whom had had at least three episodes of wheezing, and were considered to be at risk for developing asthma. The babies had a "skin ***" series of allergy tests to determine their sensitivity to common allergens and had blood taken to analyze immune activity.
The house dust samples from the ten infants who were sensitive to at least one of the allergens tested, which included dust mites, cat, dog, mouse, milk and eggs, among others, were found to have significantly less endotoxin than the dust from the other babies homes. Also, the more endotoxin they found in a baby‘s home, the more immune activity they identified in the baby‘s blood which translates to an increase in protection against allergens by enhancing type one immunity.
The number of asthma sufferers in the US are expected to double by the year 2020, affecting 1 in every 14 people and outnumbering the combined projected populations of New York and New Jersey. A just released report cautions that the federal government is not taking the necessary steps to curb the growing number of asthma cases.
From 1980-1994 the number of asthma sufferers in the US increased by 75%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among youngsters under 4 years of age, researchers observed an increase of 160%. This trend continued in 1995, when asthma was the number one reason for school absenteeism-causing 10 million missed school days and almost 2 million visits to hospital emergency rooms.
If rates continue unchecked, a child born a generation from now is twice as likely to develop asthma as a child born today. The number of deaths due to asthma are expected to increase as well, according to the report, from the present 5,000 deaths per year to 10,000 deaths per year by the end of the decade.
These factors-school absenteeism, hospital visits, deaths-make asthma an extremely expensive condition, both in terms of its cost to society and its personal cost to asthmatics and their families, A researcher noted. Another report shows that its current $11 billion cost to society is expected to soar to $18 billion by 2020.
The Lancet 2000;355:1680-1683
