Bronchial Asthma and Hyperreactivity After Early Childhood Bronchiolitis or Pneumonia

The risk of asthma after infantile bronchiolitis is definitely increased over the risk in the general population. A long-term follow-up of bronchiolitis patients found 15% go on to have asthma. Furthermore, the presence of bronchial hyperreactivity in these patients is four times as frequent as overt clinical asthma. Infants with pneumonia are also at increased risk for bronchial hyper-reactivity at a later time but not as likely to develop clinical asthma.