February 22, 2001 – A team of German researchers who followed 1,314 children from birth to age seven concluded that upper respiratory system infections (uncomplicated colds) before the age of one year have a protective effect against asthma at the age of seven. In fact, children who had had colds two or more times before one year of age were half as likely to have asthma by age 7 as those who had had fewer than two upper respiratory infections.
The researchers took into account the duration of breastfeeding, a variable that could have had a confounding effect because breastfeeding also has a protective effect against asthma.
The results of this research once again reinforce the “hyginenic hypothesis”, a theory according to which extra cleanliness, vaccinations, antiviral treatments and antibiotics prevent the full maturation of the immune system. This would explain the continual increase in the number of people suffering from asthma and allergies in developed countries.
In a commentary on this study, two professors at the Imperial College School of Medicine suggest that the solution to the continuing rise in allergic-type disease appears to be to find out which “dirt” provides the best “education” for the immune system, and copy its effects while remaining in an increasingly clean environment.
Another alternative could be to favor treatments having a stimulating effect on the immune system rather than those which aim to replace it (such as antibiotics or antivirals).
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Sabina Illi, Erika von Mutius, Susanne Lau, Renate Bergmann, Bodo Niggemann, Christine Sommerfeld, Ulrich Wahn, and the MAS Group. Early childhood infectious diseases and the development of asthma up to school age: a birth cohort study. BMJ 2001; 322: 390-395. Full text of the research.The protective effect of childhood infections (research discussion)