- NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
- For the first time, food allergy -- especially to peanuts -- has been
shown to be a major cause of life-threatening asthma in children.
-
- Asthma attacks are the most common reason for children
to be hospitalized, say Dr. Graham Roberts from St. Mary's Hospital in
London and a team of experts. Despite great strides in treatment, death
due to childhood asthma has not dropped. Roughly 50 children in the U.K.
and more than 200 in the U.S die each year from asthma.
-
- Dr. Roberts' team studied 19 children who required emergency
ventilator treatment for a life-threatening asthma attack, matching each
patient to two other patients treated for a non-life-threatening asthma
attack.
-
- In the medical publication the Journal of Allergy and
Clinical Immunology, they report that 53 percent of children with a life-threatening
asthma attack were food allergic compared with only 10 percent of those
who had asthma but did not require ventilation. Of those with known food
allergy, most appeared to be to peanuts or other nuts.
-
- Commenting on the findings, Dr. Hugh A. Sampson of Mount
Sinai in New York said "perhaps some of the life-threatening asthma
that we are seeing may in fact be related to food allergic reactions and
have been misdiagnosed only as asthma."
-
- He added, "This is particularly relevant to the
inner-city population of the U.S.," which has a lot of illness due
to asthma. "Really, at this point in time we have very little information
about food allergy in this population."
-
- Dr. Sampson hopes this paper "stimulates an awareness
of the importance of food allergy" in connection with severe life-threatening
asthma.
-
- SOURCE: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, July
2003.
-
- Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
|