Vaccination To Reduce Incidence Of Childhood Asthma

When the first few doses of diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) are postponed by more than two months and not given at the exact recommended time, as indicated by the results of a retrospective longitudinal study reported in the March issue of a renowned medical journal.

It might sound as a statement that does not have a lot of basis but still it has been found out that very early childhood immunizations can in a way promote asthma as due to some reason something happens that shifts the balance between TH1 and TH2 immunity. Conflicting routines for childhood immunizations may clarify the findings of an association with asthma reported in observational studies. The said research was basically carried out to determine whether the timing of some of the major vaccines can actually effect the development of childhood asthma by age 7 years or is it just a myth that needs to be taken care of. So we can safely assume that delay of vaccination to reduce incidence of childhood asthma can be practiced as it does have an effect on children as far as asthma treatment rather prevention is concerned.

The data of complete immunization and healthcare records of a cohort of children born in Manitoba in 1995, from birth until age 7 years, has been analyzed by experts now and again. Using much multivariable logistic regression, they calculated the familiar odds ratio for asthma at age 7 years according to the timing of DPT immunization. It was found out that among 11,531 children who were given at least four doses of DPT much later than that was required; the risk for asthma was halved in children in whom management of the first dose of DPT was delayed by more than 2 months.

We have found a negative relationship between the postponement in administration of the first dose of whole-cell DPT immunization in childhood and the occurrence of asthma; the association got much greater with delays in all of the first 3 doses the study authors write but definitely a lot has to be found out on this. There are many limitations of this study, which include many probable ascertainment bias; findings not yet confirmed about the delay of diphtheria, acellular pertussis, tetanus (DaPT) vaccines; and of course the incapability to counter the subject of childhood infections as the reason for the association between delayed immunization and protection against the development of asthma.

We need to propagate further about the association between vaccination and allergic disease, because only an observation that vaccination can contribute towards the development of asthma is not at all enough. This can also lead to the children being affected by not given immunizations at regular periods. So, epidemiologic facts linking DPT immunizations to childhood asthma are not really enough and do not serve the purpose as a whole. According to some studies, there is an increased or decreased danger of developing asthma, whereas some of them are of the opinion that in essence there is no definite association. So whether or not delay in vaccination to reduce incidence of childhood asthma is effective still has to be proved.