The protective effect of childhood infections
This is a nice editorial reviewing the importance of childhood infections in developing a healthy and balanced immune response in children. Remember that, on top of antibiotics and a more sterile environment not giving an infant’s Th1 response a chance to develop and mature, vaccinations are leading to a unbalanced, overdeveloped Th2 response. This has the potential to lead to such problems and allergy and asthma. The authors in this article do make a serious mistake, however. They suggest that science come up with some way to mimic the body’s response to infections through vaccination or passive immunotherapy. I just have to shake my head at the arrogance of science and medicine when it comes to trying to improve on nature.
bmj.com Johnston and Openshaw 322 (7283): 376
original article that editorial was based upon: bmj.com Abstracts: Illi et al. 322 (7283): 390