New Delhi, Nov 29 || An international team of scientists has found compelling evidence that early-infancy infection with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) significantly increases the risk of developing childhood asthma.
The risk is especially higher in children with a family history of allergy or asthma.
The study, published in the Science Immunology journal, suggests that protecting newborns against RSV could substantially reduce asthma cases later in life.
"Childhood asthma is a complex disease with many contributing factors," said Prof. Bart Lambrecht from VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology) and Ghent University in Belgium.