Investigators: Marie Estcourt, Patrick Holt, Peter Richmond, Tom Snelling
External collaborators: Katrina Allen (Murdoch Children's Research Institute), Michael Gold (University of Adelaide), Dianne Campbell (University of Sydney), Sarah Sheridan (University of Queensland)
In the late 1990s the type of pertussis vaccine (against whooping cough) used in Australia was changed from a whole cell vaccine to an acellular vaccine. During this time period a rapid increase in the number of reported food allergy cases among children was also observed.
This is a retrospective study looking at children diagnosed with food allergy and they type of vaccine they received. This study aims to see if whole cell vaccine was protective against the development of food allergy. If this older vaccine is found to associated with protection against allergy this is likely to impact vaccine policy in Australia and around the world.