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Antibiotics given to infants may cause asthma

The rise in childhood asthma has overlapped with an increase in the use of antibiotics, and, for the first time, scientists have found a correlation between the two. In a study that included data on over 27,000 children, published in Chest, researchers noted that babies who were given antibiotics within the first year of life have double the risk of developing asthma later in life when compared to babies not given antibiotics. In fact, the more antibiotics a child is given before his first birthday, the greater the risk of developing asthma. Researchers do not yet understand how antibiotics may influence the development of asthma, but Dr. Carlo Marra, study author, notes that the relationship may go in the other direction: children who have the beginning stages of asthma may be more likely to develop infections and need an antibiotic.

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