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THURSDAY, Oct. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Young children who wheeze when they have rhinovirus infection -- the most common cause of colds -- are at much greater risk of developing asthma later during childhood, a new study says.
Previous research had shown that infants who experience viral respiratory illnesses with wheezing are more likely to develop asthma. But, until now, it has not been clear whether all types of respiratory viruses that produce wheezing are associated with this increased risk.
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A new study published in the first issue for October of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found that it is rhinovirus-produced wheezing that parents should be most worried about.
"We have found that rhinovirus, the most common cause of colds, contributes a disproportionate amount toward future asthma development in comparison to other viruses that also cause childhood wheezing," principle investigator Dr. Robert F. Lemanske Jr., head of the Division of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said in an American Thoracic Society news release.
The researchers followed a group of nearly 300 newborns with one or both parents who have allergies or asthma, making the newborns at increased risk for asthma. The children were followed until they were 6 years old, while the researchers evaluated them for the presence of respiratory viruses and the development of asthma.
At age 6, 28 percent of the kids had asthma, with a disproportionate amount of them having wheezed from rhinovirus.
The children who wheezed with rhinovirus during the first year of life were nearly three times as likely to have asthma when they were 6 years old, compared with children who wheezed with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV, another common respiratory ailment) who did not have increased asthma risk.
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-- Krisha McCoy
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