Asthma link that plagues developed world

COMMONLY used antibiotics may increase the incidence and severity of allergic asthma in early life, according to a new study.Scientists said it was the first proof that use of antibiotics can increase children’s likelihood of suffering from the condition that affects more than 100 million people worldwide.

Professor Brett Finlay, microbiologist at the University of British Columbia, who carried out the study, said: “It has long been suspected that kids exposed to more antibiotics – like those in developed countries – are more prone to allergic asthma. Our study is the first experimental proof that shows how.”

The team examined how two widely used antibiotics – streptomycin and vancomycin – affected the bacterial “ecosystem” in the gut.

They found that vancomycin alters the bacterial communities in the intestine and increases severity of asthma in mice.

The same antibiotics do not impact upon adult mice’s susceptibility to asthma, indicating that early life is a critical period of establishing a healthy immune system.

The human gut is colonised by approximately 100 trillion bacteria, and contains upwards of 1,000 bacterial species.

Professor Finlay believes there is a link between allowing the gut flora to fully develop and incidence of allergic asthma.

The study is reported in the journal EMBO Reports.