Allergy and Immunology News of the Day

Health News of the Day is a daily summary made from the selected links I post on Twitter. It is in a bullet points format with links to the original sources which include 350 RSS feeds that produce about 2,500 items per day.

• Dogs are good for you: dog ownership in early childhood may protect against development of inhalant sensitisation. Dog ownership in early childhood was not associated with dog sensitisation or allergic symptoms up to age 6 yrs http://bit.ly/wnY9E
  
• Children with a family history of allergies are less likely to develop eczema if they live with a dog starting in infancy http://goo.gl/gost
  
• Theophylline Might Restore Sense of Smell in 50% of Patients with Anosmia http://bit.ly/QjGb3
  
  
• Basophil activation tests (BAT) sensitivity in beta-lactam allergy was 50%, and specificity ranged from 89 to 97%. BAT is the only in-vitro test validated for the diagnosis of both IgE-mediated and hypersensitivity reactions to NSAIDs http://bit.ly/M1t0A
  
  
• CD8+ T cells play a major role in nonimmediate allergic drug reactions, responsible for the severity of bullous forms. Nonimmediate allergic drug reactions are mediated by T cells and mostly affect the skin. Nonimmediate allergic drug reactions range from frequent and benign maculo-papular exanthema to severe and rare toxic epidermal necrolysis http://bit.ly/I1VTE
  
  
• State of World Allergy Report 2008: Allergy and Chronic Respiratory Diseases, by World Allergy Organization http://bit.ly/19ZTBQ
  
  
• Breastfeeding and house dust mite reduction to prevent asthma: http://27s46.tk
  
  
• "Quacks and Cures" - BBC audio slideshow http://bit.ly/4jkv3C

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