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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2007;298(19):2254.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

One-month-old infants whose throats are colonized by certain bacteria are at substantially increased risk for recurrent wheeze and asthma, according to a prospective longitudinal birth-cohort study by Danish researchers (Bisgaard H et al. N Engl J Med. 2007;357[15]:1487-1495).

Participants were 321 children enrolled in the Copenhagen Prospective Study on Asthma in Childhood birth cohort who were born to mothers with asthma, 21% of whom were colonized with Streptococcus pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Haemophilus influenzae, or a combination of these organisms. Colonization was associated with persistent wheeze, acute exacerbation of wheeze, hospitalization for wheeze, and asthma at age 5 years (with a hazard ratio of 2.40, 2.99, 3.85, and 4.57, respectively). Prevalence of asthma was 33% in colonized children and 10% in those who were not colonized.

In an accompanying editorial (von Mutius E. N Engl J Med. 2007;357[15]:1545-1547), Erika von Mutius, MD, MSc, . . . [Full Text of this Article]