 News
22nd May 2006
Cats raise risk of eczema
Children who are exposed to cats soon after birth may have
an increased risk of developing eczema.
The US study also found, however, that babies may actually
benefit from exposure to dogs.
Eczema experts said it was too early to draw firm conclusions
from the study and recommended that animals were not taken from the home
as children might go on to develop allergies later in life when re-exposed
to pet hair.
The team from the University of Arizona in Tucson followed
486 children from birth recording how many cats and dogs were present
in their households.
A year later they recorded how many children were affected
by eczema.
Just over 27 per cent of 134 children with cats as pets
had eczema by age one, compared with 17.8 per cent of the 286 without
cats in their household.
But of the 76 children living in houses with two or more
dogs, only 10 had eczema, compared to 71 out of 324 of those who did not
have the condition.
Research leader Dr Morales said, "Other studies have found
that having cats or dogs at home seems to be protective against allergic
diseases, so we expected to have similar findings.
"Pets are a source of a compound called endotoxin, and if
a child is exposed to endotoxin early in life, the immune system may be
skewed away from developing an allergic profile."
Dr Sue Lewis-Jones, consultant dermatologist and British
Skin Foundation spokeswoman, said the study was interesting but that it
was too early to draw conclusions from it.
"There are many questions about the risk of exposure to
pets and atopic diseases like eczema.
"We should be cautious about removing pets from the home
environment, because children who are currently tolerant of pet hair may
go on to develop an allergy when re-exposed to animal hair at a later
stage," said Dr Lewis Jones.
"There is a lot of contradictory data around this subject
and it is definitely one that would benefit from further research."
A spokeswoman for the Cats Protection League said, "As the
researchers themselves say, most evidence shows that children who have
cats as pets have a reduced risk of developing asthma and other allergies
in later life, so this new piece of research is rather surprising."
Cat allergy is the most common pet allergy, affecting up
to 40 per cent of asthma sufferers.
The symptoms usually include itchy eyes, sneezing, asthma
and the skin rashes typical of eczema.
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