Jan. 4, 2000: Pets Could Aggravate Kids' Asthma

    Pet lovers may be able to suppress their allergies to animals, but if they also have asthma, they have a rough go of it. Researchers from Sweden have concluded that people with asthma who own pets have more asthma attacks and need more medications to control symptoms than asthmatics who don't own pets.

    Children represent about a third of the 14.6 million people who suffer from asthma in the United States, according to the American Lung Association.

    As they reported in a recent issue of the medical journal Allergy, the researchers studied people who had asthma and were allergic to cats or dogs. They looked at 39 such people who owned pets and 90 others who did not.

    Their conclusions: The pet owners had more asthma symptoms and had to use more oral and inhaled steroids. They also suffered more from abnormal breathing and bronchial hypersensitivity and had higher counts of a type of white blood cell called an eosinophil, which is associated with asthma.

     Related links

• To learn all about asthma and other lung diseases link to the Lung Association's Web page at www.lungusa.org.
• Click here for tips from Pet Expo on dealing with pet allergies.

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