Severe Childhood Obesity May Weaken Immune Defenses and Increase Infection Risk, Critical Review Finds

Review highlights how chronic inflammation, altered immune cells, microbiome disruption, nutritional deficiencies and obesity-related conditions may combine to make infections more severe in children DOHA, Qatar — A critical review published in the Asian Journal of Research in Infectious Diseases, titled “Severe Childhood Obesity, Immune Dysfunction, and Elevated Infection Risk: A Critical Review,” brings attention to an often-overlooked consequence of severe childhood obesity: its potential to disrupt immune function and increase vulnerability to infectious disease. The review, authored by Ashraf Soliman, Fawzia Alyafei, Nada AlAaraj, Noor Hamed and Shayma Ahmed of the Department of Pediatrics at Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar, synthesizes evidence linking severe pediatric obesity with chronic inflammation, altered immune responses, gut microbiome disruption, nutritional deficiencies and poorer outcomes from infections including influenza and COVID-19.