Effect of rubeola, rubella, varicella, and a viral upper respiratory infection upon the severity of childhood asthma: With a note on the role of corticosteroids

Abstract

From Jan. 1, 1958, to June 30, 1959, observations were made of the effects of epidemics of rubeola, rubella, varicella, and an acute undifferentiated upper respiratory infection on patients at the Jewish National Home for Asthmatic Children. These observations suggest that: 1. 1. An amelioration of asthma occurs during a number of acute febrile illnesses. 2. 2. Such improvement may be related to the degree of pyrexia and may last from one to six weeks or more. 3. 3. Children on prolonged anti-inflammatory steroid therapy show the same beneficial response to these intercurrent illnesses as do children who have not received steroids. 4. 4. Anti-inflammatory steroids do not necessarily alter the course or mask the symptoms of an acute infection. 5. 5. Prolonged anti-inflammatory steroid therapy, at least in the dosage occasionally required in the management of asthma, does not seem, in the authors' experience, to be associated with an increased incidence of complications of the childhood exanthemata.