Is Infant Immunization a Risk Factor for Childhood Asthma or Allergy?

Abstract

The Christchurch Health and Development Study comprises 1,265 children born in 1977. The 23 children who received no diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus (DPT) and polio immunizations had no recorded asthma episodes or consultations for asthma or other allergic illness before age 10 years; in the immunized children, 23.1% had asthma episodes, 22.5% asthma consultations, and 30.0% consultations for other allergic illness. Similar differences were observed at ages 5 and 16 years. These findings do not appear to be due to differential use of health services (although this possibility cannot be excluded) or con-founding by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, parental atopy, or parental smoking.

A case‐control study of risk factors for asthma in New Zealand children

“…8 More recently, a role for vaccination in promoting allergic sensitisation has been proposed. [9][10][11] It has been hypothesised that intracellular infections in early life promote a predominantly TH1 response, rather than the TH2 response important in the development of atopy. 10 In this context, vaccinations may contribute towards sensitisation because they reduce clinical infection.…”

“…12 There are, however, few epidemiological studies that have examined the role of vaccinations in the development of atopy or asthma. 9,[13][14][15][16][17] For these reasons, we conducted a case-control study of asthma in childhood and report here the findings for demographic factors and vaccinations.…”

Pertussis Immunization in Infancy and Adolescent Asthma Medication

“…3,7,8,10,11,14,15 The first report about a possible increased risk of asthma in childhood after immunization against pertussis as an infant was published in 1994. 3 The authors claimed that there was no other explanatory factor except pertussis vaccination, but it was difficult to assess the results because this rather short report lacked detailed information.…”

“…4 Whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccine stimulates the adaptive immune system in a T-helper cell type 1 cytokine pattern; acellular pertussis vaccines, mostly in use today, more commonly produce a Th2-type cytokine response. 5 Several investigations have focused on the role of pertussis or combined diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus immunization, with contradictory results, 3,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] including the only randomized controlled trial published thus far. 15 In most of these studies, a wP vaccine was used.…”

Correlations Between Allergic and Infectious Diseases – Results of the Latest German National Health Survey (NHS98) and the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS)

“…A greater risk of allergy-induced respiratory-tract symptoms was observed after DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and polio) and tetanus-only vaccinations among children [40]; a greater risk of asthma (23.1%) and allergies (30%) was also observed after DTP and polio-only vaccinations; but although the unvaccinated comparison group shows an impressive 0% risk, the group size of n = 23 is very small [41]. Another author has been engaged in research relating to the abovementioned desire to determine patterns, describing that the DPT vaccination only represents an asthma risk if it is not preceded by a BCG (tuberculosis) vaccination [42].…”