Delayed Administration of Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus Vaccine and Risk of Development of Childhood Bronchial Asthma

Abstract

Childhood asthma is one of the most common childhood diseases in the developed world. The rising prevalence of asthma in many industrialized countries over the last quarter century has occurred alongside improvements in hygienic standards. The epidemiologic evidence linking diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus (DPT) immunizations to childhood asthma or atopy is mixed, with studies showing an increased or decreased risk of developing asthma, or no association.

The aim of our study was to assess if there was a relationship between the development of childhood asthma and the delayed administration of DPT vaccination.

Our study included 946 children to evaluate the link between delayed vaccination and development of asthma.

This study was carried out in the period from 1-2-2012 till 1-2-2013 and included any child  2 months of age who attended to the primary health care center (7th district) in Nasr city in Cairo. The complete immunization and health care records of cohort of children (from birth) was available for analysis. We divided the cohort according to delay in DPT vaccination into 2 groups: Delayed and Non-delayed.

We evaluated the patient characteristics and found that there were no significant statistical difference between the delayed and non delayed groups regarding the age , gender, order of birth and number of siblings.

Various risk factors for the development of asthma were studied. These included: male gender of the child, low birth weight child, exposure to tobacco smokes and history