 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) | 小孩子幾乎都很喜歡和小貓、小狗等小動物呆在一起。但是這些寵物身上攜帶大量的細菌和過敏原，促使研究員們提出這樣一個問題：貓狗等小動物真的不會引起孩子的過敏嗎？ 美國醫學會雜志發表的一項研究報告聲稱：與大多數父母的憂慮正好相反，養寵物非但不會增加兒童患過敏癥的危險，反而可以保護兒童免受過敏等疾病的困擾。 從事這項研究的負責人，喬治亞醫學院的丹尼斯·奧恩比博士說他自己也對這個結論感到"非常驚訝"。 奧恩比和他的同事研究了470名兒童，跟蹤記錄了他們從出生到6、7歲的身體情況，并把在第一年里養寵物的兒童和不養寵物的兒童進行比較。 研究人員對兒童進行皮膚點刺檢測常見過敏癥，結果發現，和寵物生活在一起的小孩患病的概率并不比其他小孩高。  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％，他們不但不易對小貓和小狗過敏，而且對塵粒、豚草和早熟禾等過敏原的過敏率也下降了。
研究人員解釋說，這種保護性的免疫效果可能和兒童早期接觸了攜帶量細菌的寵物有關。在孩子小時候，這些細菌讓免疫系統得到了鍛煉，增強了自身的免疫能力，使得他們長大后能夠抵抗過敏的侵襲。
早期的研究也發現，那些在農場長大，跟動物接觸的小孩，同樣不易患過敏癥。 紐約市哥倫比亞長老會醫學中心的威廉·戴維斯博士指出："嬰兒出生后第一年是免疫系統形成的時期，這時有一件事非常重要――我們能鍛煉免疫系統避開過敏反應。" 當然，科學家并不是要鼓勵父母買小寵物來預防孩子過敏。他們只是認為已經養寵物的家庭沒有必要放棄心愛的寵物。 注：Ragweed, 豚草屬的雜草，有綠色、雌雄合一的小花冠，能產大量花粉，是引起干草熱的主要原因之一 (中國日報網站譯) |
Updated: 2002-09-02 01:00
