Kids Who Wheeze With Rhinovirus at Higher Asthma Risk

Children who wheezed with rhinovirus in their second year of life were more than six times as likely to have asthma, and rhinovirus-associated wheezing at age 3 was associated with a more than 30-fold increased risk.

While these findings provide important information about the type of wheezing-inducing virus that is associated with an increased risk of asthma, the researchers said they can't say whether rhinovirus causes asthma to develop or simply reveals children who will develop the disease.

"In genetically susceptible children, [rhinovirus] wheezing illnesses could cause airway damage as well as subsequent asthma (virus-related factors)," Dr. Daniel L. Jackson, Allergy and Immunology Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, said in the news release. But Jackson pointed out that additional research is needed to determine whether rhinovirus leads to asthma development.

More information

The American Lung Association has more about childhood asthma.