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Management of Rodent Exposure and Allergy in the Pediatric Population

  • Pediatric Allergy and Immunology (JM Portnoy and CE Ciaccio, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Although rodent allergy has long been recognized as an occupational disease, it has only been in the past decade that it has been recognized as a community-based disease that affects children. Most homes in the US have detectable mouse allergen, but the concentrations in inner-city homes are orders of magnitude higher than those found in suburban homes. Home mouse allergen exposure has been linked to sensitization to mouse, and children with asthma who are both sensitized and exposed to high mouse allergen concentrations at home are at greater risk for symptoms, exacerbations and reduced lung function. Rat allergen is found primarily in inner-city homes and has also been linked to asthma morbidity among sensitized children. The objective of this review is to summarize the scientific literature on rodents and their allergens, the effects of exposure to these allergens on allergic respiratory disease, and to make recommendations, based on this evidence base, for the evaluation and management of mouse allergy in the pediatric population.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (P50ES015903, P01ES018176), the Environmental Protection Agency (R832139), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R01AI070630 and U01AI083238) and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine General Clinical Research Center grant no. M01-RR00052 from the National Center for Research Resources/NIH.

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Conflict of Interest

Elizabeth C. Matsui has served on an EPA Science Advisory Board, received honoraria from ThermoFisher, and received durable goods support for asthma studies from 3M and Clean Brands LLC.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Correspondence to Elizabeth C. Matsui.

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Matsui, E.C. Management of Rodent Exposure and Allergy in the Pediatric Population. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep 13, 681–686 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-013-0378-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-013-0378-4

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