Sticky tape eczema test for newborns

SCIENTISTS have developed a simple test using sticky tape that can predict whether newborns will go on to develop childhood eczema.

Italian researchers used the tape to collect skin cells from babies’ hands at two months, and then again two years later.

They found that newborns with higher levels of the compound thymus and activation-regulated chemokine were more than twice as likely to have then developed eczema.

Eczema affects up to one in five children, causing cracked and itchy skin which can become infected.

Study author Dr Anne-Sofie Halling, from Copenhagen University Hospital, said that discovering eczema risk early on would help doctors treat and prevent the skin problem.