Aussie researcher’s stunning asthma breakthrough
Australian researchers have made a stunning breakthrough in the prevention of asthma, happening across a method that has been described as a ‘holy grail’ that could cut the rate of children diagnosed with the condition by 50 per cent.
Dailymail reports Hunter Medical Research Institute has been studying asthma in pregnant woman, and found breath-testing and treatment during pregnancy halved the odds their children would be diagnosed before starting school.
“Implementation of this approach in clinical practice has the potential to reduce asthma rates among a group of children at high-risk of developing the disease,” the findings published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology said.
The study’s lead researcher Vanessa Murphy, from the University of Newcastle, said early results from the research were more than promising.
“Asthma in pregnancy affects around 10 to 12 per cent of pregnant women in Australia,” she told the ABC.
“And I don't think we take that seriously enough because it can have major impacts on the health of both the mother and the baby.”
Her bullish attitude was backed up by fellow research and paediatrician Professor Joerg Mattes, from the John Hunter Children’s Hospital.
“To see such a clear and robust and impressive effect, I have to say was obviously a nice surprise,” he said.
“To identify a prevention for asthma is considered to be the holy grail within our research and this finding, which is unexpectedly very clear and very significant, we believe has large implications because it is the most effective asthma prevention that has been demonstrated so far.”
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