Our experts tell us that it's generally recognized that spending 4 weeks in any sunny location will frequently clear eczema symptoms-indicative of the beneficial effect of the sun's rays on most eczematous skin. Unfortunately, the positive effects only last briefly once the person returns home. Skov L, Baadsgaard O Department of Dermatology, University of Copenhagen, Gentofte Hospital, Denmark. The second article, although shorter, covers much of the same ground but expands the scope of the hypothesis to include inflammatory skin disease, with specific reference to both AD and guttate psoriasis. Trying to nail down a causative role of SsAgs in the pathogenesis of AD is not as simple as trying to determine if Koch's postulates may apply to establishing causation by a putative infectious agent.
Atopic patients have atypical immune responses to antigenic insult.
Thus, the evidence for a direct role of SsAg in the pathogenesis of AD remains largely circumstantial. Ironically, the longer antibiotic therapy is applied to an atopic patient, the more likely that drug-resistance is being selected. The rising global prevalence of AD is occurring in parallel to a global reduction in antibiotic effectiveness. Whether the two phenomena are linked or are independent events remains to be seen. These two excellent reviews make a strong case for epidemiologic studies to directly examine this question.