Most
children, even the youngest of children, are delighted to be around
cats and dogs. But these pets carry plenty of germs and allergens,
prompting researchers to ask: Are cats and dogs really safe for
children?
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
finds that, contrary to many parents' fears, owning cats or dogs
does not increase a child's risk of developing allergies, and in
fact, may actually protect them.
The study's lead author, Dr. Dennis Ownby of the Medical College
of Georgia, says that even he was "very surprised" by
the results.
Ownby and colleagues followed more than 470 children from birth
to age 6 or 7, comparing those exposed to cats and dogs during
their first year of life to those who were not.
By using skin-prick tests for detecting common allergies, the
researchers found that, contrary to what many doctors had been
taught for years, children who had lived with a pet were not at
greater risk.
Even more remarkable, children who had two or more dogs or cats
had an even greater reduction, up to 77 percent, in risk of allergies.
And not only were they less likely to develop allergies to cats
and dogs, but also to dust mites, short ragweed and blue grass.
Researchers suggest this protective effect may be the result
of early exposure to lots of bacteria that are carried by dogs
and cats. Exposing young children to these bacteria helps "exercise"
their immune systems early in life so that they're better able
to resist allergic diseases later.
Previous research showed that children raised on farms and exposed
to animals were less likely to have allergies as well.
"There's something very important in that first year of
life when the immune system is developing that we can retrain
it away from an allergic response," said Dr. William Davis
of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.
And while researchers are not encouraging parents to buy dogs
or cats just to reduce a child's allergy risk, they say if a family
already has one or more animals, there's no need to get rid of
them.
(Agenceis)
Updated: 2002-09-02 01:00
更值得注意的是，那些擁有兩只或更多小寵物的兒童，患過敏癥的病例甚至要少很多，比同齡兒童降低了77％，他們不但不易對(duì)小貓和小狗過敏，而且對(duì)塵粒、豚草和早熟禾等過敏原的過敏率也下降了。