NEWS BRIEFING: Whooping cough vaccine could help in the fight against food allergies
Embargoed until:
Publicly released:
2020-01-21 00:01
*BRIEFING RECORDING AVAILABLE* A dose of the whooping cough vaccine might have reduced cases of childhood food allergies, according to Australian researchers who reviewed the cases of 500 children diagnosed with food allergy by specialist allergists in the late 1990s. The researchers found that children who had received one or more doses of an older 'whole-cell' whooping cough vaccine were 23 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with a food allergy than those who had the updated ‘acellular’ version. Researchers say this provides evidence that the whole-cell vaccine could have the added benefit of boosting protection against life-threatening allergies to foods like eggs, milk, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, fish and shellfish, but more research will be needed to confirm this.
Journal/conference: The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice
Link to research (DOI): 10.1016/j.jaip.2019.12.020
Organisation/s: Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, The University of Sydney, The University of Adelaide, Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI)
Funder: This research was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. (https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/funding) Th e NHMRC Project Grant (APP1069772) was awarded to TLS, DEC, MSG, PR, KJA, HEQ, CSW, NJW, PBM, and PGH. TLS is supported by an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (GNT1111657). The funder of the study approved the study design, but had no role in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, or in writing of the report or the decision to submit for publication. The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.
Tom's conflict of interest statement: The study was fully funded by NHMRC (received no industry or other funding). One of the authors received a previous grant from GlaxoSmithKline and has served on advisory panels for GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi with no remuneration.
Media Briefing/Press Conference
From: Australian Science Media Centre
Speaker:
- Professor Tom Snelling is a paediatrician and vaccine researcher at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, based at Telethon Kids Institute
Date: Mon 20 Jan 2020
Start Time: 10:00am AEDT
Duration: Approx 45 min
Venue: Online
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