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A decline in the number of young children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes may be badociated with the introduction of routine rotavirus vaccination of Australian infants, according to a new study by researchers in Melbourne.
The researchers studied the number of Australian children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes from 2000 to 2015 and found that the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in children aged 0 to 4 years had decreased from 2007, the year of the introduction of rotavirus vaccine as routine infant immunization.
This is the first time that the rate of type 1 diabetes in young children in Australia has been declining since the 1980s. Although the link between rotavirus vaccine and type 1 diabetes protection is inconclusive, the discovery Based on previous research suggesting that a natural rotavirus infection could be a risk factor for type 1 diabetes.
The study, a collaboration led by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and clinician researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, was published in JAMA Pediatrics aujourd & # 39; hui.
Decline in type 1 diabetes
Since the 1980s, the incidence of type 1 diabetes has steadily increased in Australia and around the world, but the reasons for this increase are poorly understood. Type 1 diabetes is a serious autoimmune disease that lasts a lifetime. The immune system destroys pancreatic cells producing insulin, a hormone that controls the level of glucose in the blood.
In investigating the number of Australian children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes each year since 2000, the research team found that after 2007, the rate of type 1 diabetes was decreased in children aged 0 to 4 years, said Dr. Kirsten Perrett, Murdoch Children's Research. Institute.
"The significant decrease in type 1 diabetes that we detected in young children after 2007 was not observed in older children aged 5 to 14. This suggests that young children may have been exposed to a protective factor that has not affected older children, "said Dr A Perrett said.
"We observed that the decline in the rate of type 1 diabetes in children born after 2007 coincided with the introduction of the oral rotavirus vaccine into the Australian National Immunization Program in 2007."
The rotavirus vaccine is routinely administered to Australian infants aged 2 and 4 months to protect them against a serious form of life-threatening diarrhea.
Explore the connection
Professor Len Harrison of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, lead author of the study, said this discovery was a continuation of previous research involving rotavirus infection in the development of type 1 diabetes.
"Twenty years ago, our team had uncovered an badociation between the appearance of immune markers of type 1 diabetes in children and rotavirus infection." laboratory have suggested that pancreatic cell rotavirus infection could trigger an immune attack against insulin-producing cells – similar to what happens in type 1 diabetes, "he said.
"Although inconclusive, our latest study suggests that the prevention of rotavirus infection in Australian infants by vaccination could also reduce their risk of type 1 diabetes. We will continue this research to further examine the correlation , comparing the medical history of young children with or without type 1 diabetes.
"At this point, we do not yet know whether the reduction in type 1 diabetes is a permanent or transient effect, and this could only affect Australian children," said Professor Harrison.
The research was funded by the National Council of Medical Research and Health (ECF APP1054394), a fellowship of clinicians and scientists for children, a grant from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, the Colin North Diabetes Fund and the Victorian Government.
Dr. Perrett and Professor Harrison hold honorary positions at the University of Melbourne.
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