Prevalence of food allergy in Taiwan: a questionnaire-based survey.

AIM: Food allergy is common in children and adults, and could be potentially fatal in minor groups. It is important for physicians to identify the prevalence of food allergies and to recognise common food allergens to make precise diagnosis and choose correct therapeutic approaches. METHODS: We used a nationwide, cross-sectional, random questionnaire-based survey to estimate the self-reported and expert-screened prevalence of food allergies and to identify the common food allergens in Taiwan. In this study, the perceptional diagnosis of food allergies was screened by physicians according to descriptions of convincing symptoms and medical recordings; in the meantime, non-allergic adverse reactions to foods, including food intolerance or food avoidance, were clarified. RESULTS: A total of 30 018 individuals who met the inclusion criteria was evaluated, and 6.95% of them were diagnosed as victims of food allergies. The prevalence was 3.44% in children under 3 years of age, 7.65% in children aged 4-18 years and 6.40% in adults respectively. About 77.33% of the food allergy population had experienced recurrent allergic attacks. Systemic reactions happened about 4.89% in food allergies group. The most commonly reported food allergen in Taiwan is seafood, including shrimp, crab, fish and mollusc. In addition, mango, milk, peanuts and eggs were also important food allergens in the general population; while milk, shellfish, peanuts and eggs were common in children. CONCLUSIONS: Less than 10% of the Taiwan population suffers from food allergy with different allergic symptoms to variable food allergens in different age groups.

Halitosis vaccines targeting FomA, a biofilm-bridging protein of fusobacteria nucleatum.

Halitosis (bad breath) is estimated to influence more than half of the world's population with varying degree of intensity. More than 85% of halitosis originates from oral bacterial infections. Foul-smelling breath mainly results from bacterial production of volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) such as hydrogen sulfide and methyl mercaptan. To date, major treatments for elimination of oral malodor include periodontal therapy combined with antibiotics or antimicrobial agents, and mechanical approaches including tooth and tongue cleaning. These treatments may transiently reduce VSCs but carry risks of generating toxicity, increasing resistant strains and misbalancing the resident human flora. Therefore, there is a need to develop alternative therapeutic modalities for halitosis. Plaque biofilms are the principal source for generating VSCs which are originally metabolized from amino acids during co-aggregation of oral bacteria. Blocking the bacterial coaggregation, therefore, may prevent various biofilm-associated oral diseases such as periodontitis and halitosis. Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum), a Gram-negative anaerobe oral bacterium, is a main bacterial strain related to halitosis. Aggregation of F. nucleatum with other bacteria to form plaque biofilms in oral cavity causes bad breath. FomA, the major outer membrane protein of F. nucleatum, recruits other oral pathogenic bacteria such as Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) in the periodontal pockets. A halitosis vaccine targeting F. bacterium FomA significantly abrogates the enhancement of bacterial co-aggregation, biofilms, production of VSCs, and gum inflammation mediated by an inter-species interaction of F. nucleatum with P. gingivalis, which suggests FomA of F. nucleatum to be a potential target for development of vaccines or drugs against bacterial biofilm formation and its associated pathogenicities.

Prolonged fever and pyuria: a urinary tract infection presentation of incomplete Kawasaki disease.

UNLABELLED: We report two patients with incomplete Kawasaki disease that presented as apparent urinary tract infection. Persistent fever and pyuria were the initial presentation without concomitant signs suggestive of Kawasaki disease; thus the patients were treated as urinary tract infection. Fever persisted despite antibiotic treatment. Diagnostic criteria of Kawasaki disease were not fulfilled for these two patients, yet aneurysmal dilatation of the coronary artery was noted 10 and 18 d, respectively, after the onset of fever. The diagnosis of incomplete Kawasaki disease was assigned when the coronary artery abnormality was detected. Fever subsided within 24 h of administration of intravenous immunoglobulin. CONCLUSION: This report highlights the potentially misleading presentation of fever and pyuria as the sole initial manifestation of incomplete Kawasaki disease. Echocardiography is indicated to detect coronary artery abnormality when fever persists in such patients after adequate antibiotic treatment and thorough urological evaluation.