Allergy and Infection

Abstract

In previous communications^1-7 we reported that in allergic children a definite relationship existed between an infectious process and exposure to some nonviable allergenic factor. In our long span of awareness of the fundamental significance of this relationship, much has been learned concerning it. Very early we began to recognize the incipient symptoms of allergic disease which make their appearance in infancy and early childhood. It became apparent that the clinical features of allergic disease presented an ever widening picture and that there was not always a clear group of classic manifestations as we had been led to believe. It became evident that the wide variety of frequently recurrent respiratory illnesses known variously as nasopharyngitis, sinusitis, otitis, tonsillitis, croup, tracheitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, ete., which have plagued allergic children for centuries, were actually precipitated by the same factors which caused attacks of asthma and other allergic respiratory ailments. Thus, these children were predisposed to infection by the same factors that made them candidates for classic allergic disease.