US researchers studied more than 250 newborns at high risk for asthma and followed them from birth to 6 years old to investigate the relationship between specific childhood illnesses and early development of asthma. Samples of mucus from their nose and throat were taken and analysed and they were tested for specific viruses during wheezing illnesses.
Researchers found that nearly 90% of the children wheezing with common cold virus, rhinovirus (RV) at age 3 subsequently developed asthma at age 6. The lead author wrote in the Americam Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine that rhinovirus which causes wheezing in childhood was the most significant predictor of the subsequent development of asthma at age six.
Critics say that athough the study demontrated an association between wheezing during childhood colds and later asthma, it does not mean that cold is the casue of asthma. Asthma is a very difficult condition to diagnose but asthma at age six does not necessarily mean that the it will persist into later childhood.
Source: "Jackson DJ, Gangnon RE, Evans MD, et al. Wheezing Rhinovirus Illnesses in Early Life Predict Asthma Development in High-Risk Children." Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2008: 178; 667–672 ( abstract only)
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