Early respiratory infections linked to Type 1 diabetes

Researchers from Germany have found that respiratory infections in early life are linked to islet autoimmunity, implicating them as a potential risk factor in the development of Type 1 diabetes. The team used data from the ongoing BABYDIET study, which is assessing the association between early gluten exposure and islet autoimmunity. Their analyses included 148 children, with a total of 90,750 days of infection, fever, and medication status documented by their parents in the first 3 years of life. The children were tested for islet autoantibody seroconversion every 3 months. They found that children with islet autoantibody seroconversion during follow-up had significantly greater exposure to respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, and fever during the first year of life and throughout the study compared with children without seroconversion. Infections became more common after the first 6 months of life, which the team says is presumably due to decreased maternal passive immunity. And while no seroconversions...