eczema

People with eczema—or parents of children with eczema—often suspect that food allergies are somehow setting off eczema flares. But nailing down exactly which foods cause trouble is made difficult by the many other factors that can trigger eczema. Such triggers include emotional or physical stress, environment, and viral or bacterial infection. Recently I spoke on the phone to Jon Hanifin, a professor of dermatology and clinician at Oregon Health Sciences University and NEA board member, to find out whether allergy tests can truly benefit eczema patients.

The US government has ordered 20 million doses of a vaccine that should protect eczema patients from smallpox without exposing them to the risk of developing eczema vaccinatum, a life-threatening infection, according to a press release by the vaccine’s manufacturer, the Danish biotechnology company Bavarian Nordic.

This means that, in the event of a smallpox bioterror attack, instead of relying on the dubious security of herd immunity, people like you and me can get vaccinated. Until the advent of this new vaccine, we could not.

Eczema vaccinatum made the headlines in 2007 when an