Asthma: a follow up statement from an international paediatric asthma consensus group SIR,-I was surprised to find in this very comprehensive and helpful consensus state- ment on asthma,' no mention about the short course of oral steroids that has in recent years become widely, yet so uncritically, used in the treatment ofacute exacerbations ofasthma: the use of oral steroids is referred to only in the context of managing severe asthma.Yet most children whom I see in hospital who have been treated with prednisone by the general practitioner at home or in hospital on admission by junior staff have been far from seriously ill.It is so easy for the occasional short course of prednisone to become for some children almost continuous therapy with its well known possible side effects.Can the Steering Com- mittee advise on this?
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Mcintyre et al. (1992) studied this question.
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