Salta Centre

Personnel

• Dra Maria E. Caceres
• Dr R. Maximiliano Gómez
• Ms Leonor Guitián
• Ms Josefa Martinez

Why Salta was chosen?

Salta is a valley located in the north of Argentina, limiting with Chile and Bolivia, having half a million inhabitants who are Aboriginal and European descendents. Like other developing cities, in a developing country, it was expected that allergic diseases were becoming more frequently recognized, but no reliable data was available. It was the northern site from Argentina that took part in this Phase III ISAAC study.

Our experience

All people involved in the survey were really enthusiastic, since we had a response rate higher than 95%.

The national coordination by Prof. Carlos E. Baena-Cagnani let the argentinean centers contributing to the data of Latin America situation in atopic diseases, where the hygiene hypothesis seems to have a marginal effect. References (1 – 2) are interesting to read about that.

Besides, in our place we added to the original questionnaire some questions regarding smoking status, both personal and passive, as we interviewed students of 13-14 years old. This data demonstrate a significant association of smoking with asthma and rhinitis symptoms, reinforcing the harmful effects on them (3).

Reference

1. Solé D, Mallol J, Wandalsen GF, Aguirre V; Latin American ISAAC Phase 3 Study Group. Prevalence of symptoms of eczema in Latin America: results of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Phase 3. J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol. 2010;20(4):311-23.
2. 7.47) Mallol J, Solé D, Baeza-Bacab M, Aguirre-Camposano V, Soto-Quiros M, Baena-Cagnani C; Latin American ISAAC Group. Regional variation in asthma symptom prevalence in Latin American children. J Asthma. 2010 Aug;47(6):644-50.
3. Gómez M, Vollmer WM, Caceres ME, Jossen R, Baena-Cagnani CE. Adolescent smokers are at greater risk for current asthma and rhinitis. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2009 Aug; 13(8):1023-28.