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Mouse urine and faeces
by: Karon
Beattie
Mouse urine and faeces could be an important cause of childhood
asthma in inner cities, says an American team.
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"Although cockroach allergen is the most important factor
in terms of asthma severity, we have found that mouse allergen is much more
important than dust mites or allergies to cats or dogs," says Robert Wood
of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, who led the research.
The team took samples from the homes of over 600 asthmatic
children in eight US cities. Traces of mouse urine or faeces were found in at
least one room in 95 per cent of the homes. Tests showed nearly one in five
of the children was allergic to the mouse traces and these children tended to
have more severe asthma.
"We were surprised. This is not an allergen that has been
looked at carefully," said Robert Wood. Martyn Partridge of the British
National Asthma Campaign agrees: "To date, we haven't thought that mice
are a problem as a trigger for asthma." Wood's team analysed dust samples
from the homes of 608 children. The percentage of homes with mouse allergen
in each of the eight cities varied from 74 per cent in Cleveland to 100 per
cent in Baltimore.
Like cockroaches, mice are more common in inner cities and
research suggests asthma is twice as common here. Woods thinks mouse allergen
is unlikely to be a significant cause of asthma in suburban or rural areas.
He believes doctors should now start routinely testing asthmatic children for
mouse allergy. A positive test would mean a mouse eradication programme could
be implemented in the child's home.
Ideally, says Woods, general mouse eradication programmes
should be carried out: "Most of our asthma patients lived in flats. Even
if you keep your own area clean, mice will still get in from other homes."
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (vol 106, p1070)
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