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Nonatopic asthma is associated with helminth infections and bronchiolitis in poor children

¹ Paediatric Pulmonary Research Laboratory, Biomedical Research Institute, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil. ² World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Research on Children’s Environmental Health, Curtin University of Technology, and ³ Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. ⁴ Dept of Epidemiology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.

CORRESPONDENCE: R. T. Stein, Av. Ipiranga 6690, conj. 420 - Laboratório de Pediatria, IPB-PUCRS, Porto Alegre, RS - CEP 90610-000, Brazil. Fax: 55 5133845104. E-mail: rstein{at}pucrs.br

Keywords: Allergy, bronchiolitis, helminths, intestinal parasites, nonatopic asthma, wheeze

Received: October 1, 2006
Accepted February 11, 2007

Asthma is common in urban centres in Latin America, but atopic asthma may not be the main phenotype among children. Helminth infections are highly prevalent in poor populations, and it was hypothesised that they attenuate allergic asthma, whereas other factors are related to the expression of a nonatopic wheeze/asthma phenotype.

A total of 1,982 children from Southern Brazil with a mean±SD age of 10.1±0.76 yrs completed asthma questionnaires, and 1,011 were evaluated for intestinal parasites and atopy using skin-prick tests (SPTs).

Wheeze in the previous 12 months was reported by 25.6%, and 9.3% showed current asthma; 13% were SPT-positive and 19.1% were positive for any helminths. Most children with either wheeze or asthma were SPT-negative; however, severe wheeze was more prevalent among the atopic minority. Helminth infections were inversely associated with positive SPT results. Bronchiolitis before the age of 2 yrs was the major independent risk factor for asthma at age 10 yrs; high-load Ascaris infection, a family history of asthma and positive SPT results were also asthma risk factors.

Most asthma and wheeze are of the nonatopic phenotype, suggesting that some helminths may exert an attenuating effect on the expression of the atopic portion of the disease, whereas viral bronchiolitis predisposes more specifically to recurrent airway symptoms.

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