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Neonatal immune function and inflammatory illnesses in later life: lessons to be learnt from the developing world?With the emergence of allergic and autoimmune diseases in populations that have started to transit to a western lifestyle, there has been an increasing...
Research
Early immunological influences on asthma development: opportunities for early interventionEarly immunological influences on asthma development: opportunities for early intervention
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Census data reveals stark gap in asthma risk for inner and outer city kidsChildren who live in the outer suburbs of Australia’s four biggest cities are twice as likely to have asthma as those living in inner city areas, according to a new study based on health data captured in the last Australian Census.
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Directing immune development to curb sky-rocketing diseaseOnce upon a time it was infectious diseases like polio, measles or tuberculosis that most worried parents. With these threats now largely under control, parents face a new challenge – sky-rocketing rates of non-infectious diseases such as asthma, allergies and autism.
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Funding boost to improve anaesthesia safety for kids with asthmaTelethon Kids Institute and the PMH Anaesthesia Research Team will work to improve the safety for young children with asthma undergoing general anaesthesia.
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Video: Aboriginal AsthmaWadjuk Nyungar man Walter McGuire talks about the importance of air quality to our health.
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Research reveals new link between Vitamin D, lung bacteria and asthmaA The Kids for Child Health Research study has uncovered a new link between vitamin D levels and asthma.
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New system for predicting asthma in childrenAsthma researchers at Perth's The Kids for Child Health Research are developing a world first system for predicting the severity of asthma in children
Research
Association between pertussis vaccination in infancy and childhood asthma: A population-based record linkage cohort studyAsthma is among the commonest noncommunicable diseases of childhood and often occurs with other atopic comorbidities. A previous case-control study found evidence that compared to children who received acellular pertussis (aP) vaccines in early infancy, children who received one or more doses of whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccine had lower risk of developing IgE-mediated food allergy. We hypothesized that wP vaccination in early infancy might protect against atopic asthma in childhood.
Research
Maternal diet modulates the infant microbiome and intestinal Flt3L necessary for dendritic cell development and immunity to respiratory infectionPoor maternal diet during pregnancy is a risk factor for severe lower respiratory infections in the offspring, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate that in mice a maternal low-fiber diet led to enhanced LRI severity in infants because of delayed plasmacytoid dendritic cell recruitment and perturbation of regulatory T cell expansion in the lungs.