Asthma and the westernization ‘package’

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Abstract
Ten years ago we knew what caused asthma, and we knew how to prevent it. Asthma was an atopic disease caused by allergen exposure. The fundamental aetiological mechanism was that allergen exposure, particularly in infancy, produced atopic sensitization and continued exposure resulted in asthma through the development of eosinophilic airways inflammation, bronchial hyper-responsiveness and reversible airflow obstruction. Asthma prevalence was increasing around the world because of changes in lifestyle and domestic building design that were increasing allergen exposure. The solution was therefore clear: to prevent asthma we needed to prevent exposure to allergens.1– 3
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