The viral factor in childhood asthma.

Independently of the important role the infections bacterial factor plays in childhood asthma, many authors have considered the virus the primary triggering factor of bronchospasm. This latter factor has been so exaggerated that some authors have even conceded it the maximum importance. In studies carried out with a more numerous population than in those works presented so far, controlling the presence of antibodies during the crisis and a week later in serum from asthmatic children, the authors found that only 13.5% presented specific antibodies against one or two of the sixteen viral antigens studied. These children at the same time developed a bacterial infection which remitted with antibiotic therapy, with the consequent disappearance of the asthma. In etiopathological studies realized in 700 children it was equally confirmed that the bacterial factor was involved in 90% of the cases, in the sense of a sinopulmonary syndrome. More profound studies are needed to clarify this point which is held in little consideration by many clinicians.