Risk of childhood wheeze and asthma after respiratory syncytial virus infection in full‐term infants

Asuncion Mejias, Bingcao Wu, Neeta Tandon, Wing Chow, Ram Varma, Eduardo Franco, Octavio Ramilo

Summary

Most studies that have looked at the relationship between RSV and further respiratory sequelae such as asthma and wheeze have been performed in premature infants, or infants with other risk factors, as a result few studies have been conducted on the role of RSV in the incidence of asthma in these populations. This study retroactively analysed databases of medical data from Over 100000  infants born at term in the US, with and without RSV infection and full-term health plans. Data were used to calculate RW/asthma, cumulative incidence, adjusted incidence rate ratios, and odds ratios.

It was demonstrated that, while not matching incidence rates in pre-term infants, infants that experience severe RSV infections often develop further respiratory complications, indicating that other complications may be more relevant in predicting the development of respiratory sequelae. These data will provide an extremely useful resource in examining the contribution of other risk factors to likelihood of developing severe respiratory sequalae.

Full article on PubMed.