Covid infections lower in people with food allergies – and not higher in asthmatics, study finds

Researchers find infected households with asthmatic individuals are not at increased risk of transmission

Children under 12 years of age are just as susceptible as teenagers and adults, but most have no symptoms, research shows

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An analysis by researchers in the United States found no association between Covid-19 infection risk and asthma. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:00pm, 6 Jun 2022Updated: 9:08am, 7 Jun 2022

People with food allergies are less likely to be infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 and those with asthma do not necessarily have a higher risk of infection, a study in the United States has found.

The Human Epidemiology and Response to Sars-CoV-2 (Heros) study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to determine rates of infection in children and their families in the US, also found that under-12s were just as susceptible to infection as teenagers and adults, but most were asymptomatic.

The study enrolled 4,142 participants from nearly 1,400 households with at least one child below 13 years old or a family member aged between 13 and 21. The findings were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology last week.

The participants were drawn from NIH-funded studies focused on allergic diseases from 12 US cities and provided nasal swabs every two weeks between May 2020 and February 2021.

Asthma was self-reported by 22 per cent of carers and 32 per cent of children and teenagers. One or more atopic conditions, other than asthma, were self-reported by more than half of carers and children, including food allergy, eczema, and upper respiratory allergy such as hay fever and allergic rhinitis. Atopic conditions are sensitivities to allergies.

In total, 147, or 10.5 per cent of households, experienced one or more Sars-CoV-2 infections, with a 25.8 per cent probability of household infection during the study period.