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Investigation of the hygiene hypothesis: current issues and future directions
Author(s) -
Ponsonby A.L.,
Kemp A.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.363
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1398-9995
pISSN - 0105-4538
DOI - 10.1111/j.1398-9995.2008.01652.x
Subject(s) - hygiene hypothesis , current (fluid) , medicine , hygiene , environmental health , intensive care medicine , immunology , allergy , pathology , physics , thermodynamics
The hygiene hypothesis was first proposed in 1989 by\udStrachan et al. (1) who proposed that reduced opportunities\udfor cross-infection in families may have resulted in\udthe more widespread clinical expression of atopic disease.\udIt was based on the observation of a striking inverse\udassociation between sibling number and hay fever in\udadulthood among those in the 1960 UK birth cohort\udstudy. It proposed that sibling number could be\udprotective for allergic disease because siblings are the\udsource of infection. The immunological mechanisms that\udmight mediate the consequences of increased sibling\udexposure are unclear and the simplistic proposal that\udearly life microbial deflects the immune system from a\udTh2 (allergic)- to a Th1(nonallergic)- response can be\udchallenged