19853
By Science News
This article offers two explanations for the correlation of asthma with early infancy antibiotics: a need for the immune system to be trained by early exposure to microbial toxins and a need for normal intestinal microflora in the development of normal immune response. Another possibility is that the rashes and infections that prompted the use of antibiotics share a common cause with the subsequent asthma.
Matthew H. Fields
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Virginia Brock
Rock Island, Ill.