What is an infection

Ear disease comes in patterns that range from one extreme of RECURRENT ACUTE OTITIS to the other of PERSISTANT Otitis Media with EFFUSION.


two broad categories of ear disease:

On the one hand are children with RECURRENT ACUTE OTITIS, that is - when your child has one infection after another. Each infection has fever, pain and clears in 48 hours on antibiotics. These infections are caused by bacteria in over half the cases, and by a virus the other times. Antibiotics have proven to be effective about half the time. These are NOT the cases I am talking about.


70% of all cases of otitis - ear infections - are acute and resolve no matter what treatment is used - antiobiotics or watchful waiting.

It is the other 30% of ear infections that go on to develop a chronic problem with persistant fluid,that is - Chronic Otitis Media with Effusion or OME. These are the cases that this web page is about.

Remember:

35% of children under 5 years old get ear infections = 16 Million Children / year 70% are acute infections - and get better 30% do not get better NO MATTER WHAT TREATMENT - these become CHRONIC OTITIS MEDIA WITH EFFUSION = OME = 5 million / yr. 90% of patients with OME are allergic

If their allergies are appropriately treated - 90% will resolve!

Additional risks of ear infections include smoking, day care, upper respiratory infection, males and family history. BUT a common denominator is atopy or allergy:

Whether smoking or not, 80-90% of children in both groups are allergic.

Whether in day care or not, 80-90% of children in both groups are allergic.

Whether having a cold or not, 80-90% of children in both groups are allergic.

Whether boys or girls, 80-90% of children in both groups are allergic.

So if most people with chronic otitis are allergic,

is it an allergic disease?

Our research seems to support this idea and can be found in "Medical Proof", which gives the science and references underlying the opinions on these pages.