Do Bacteria Promote Asthma?

摘要

Newborns whose lungs become colonized with certain bacteria are more likely to develop wheezing and childhood asthma than babies not colonized by the bacteria. This connection, reported in the 11 October 2007 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, raises the possibility that controlling bacterial colonization in neonates may lower the prevalence of childhood asthma.Pediatrician Hans Bisgaard, director of the Danish Pediatric Asthma Center at Copenhagen University Hospital, an,d colleagues studied 321 asthmatic mothers and their infants for five years. "By including mothers with asthma, we identified a high-risk cohort where we expect to see more children with asthma," says Bisgaard. A family history of asthma raises the risk for childhood asthma.At 1 month and 12 mondis of age, the babies were tested for Streptococcus-pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxelia catarrhalis, and Staphylococcus aureus. The first diree pathogens cause pneumonia, whereas S. aureus commonly infects die skin. Parents recorded the children's respiratory symptoms, such as wheezingand persistent cough, in daily diaries. Physicians examined the children for asthma when they reached 5 years of age.