Posted on 05/25/2011 1:48:50 PM PDT by decimon
NEW ORLEANS, LA – May 23, 2011 -- People with severe asthma are more likely to have antibodies against the disease-causing bacteria Chlamydia pneumoniae than the general population and in some cases antibiotic treatment can greatly improve symptoms according to research presented today at the 111th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
"We conclude that a subset of severe asthmatics harbor infectious C. pneumoniae in their lungs, resulting in antibody production and increased asthma severity," says Eduard Drizik of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who presented the study.
Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease, whose causes are not completely understood, affecting over 300 million people worldwide, including almost 24 million American children and adults. There is no cure for asthma and the disease is managed by controlling disease symptoms. The recognition that asthma pathogenesis involves chronic inflammation has led to a flurry of studies exploring the prevalence of various infectious organisms in the asthmatic condition.
Having previously demonstrated an increased prevalence of C. pneumoniae in the lungs of children and adults with asthma, the researchers conducted a study designed to determine if the presence of Chlamydia-specific antibodies could predict asthma severity and if these antibody-positive patients would benefit from treatment with antibiotics.
"The data revealed a statistically significant link between Chlamydia-specific IgE antibody production and the severity of asthma," says Drizik. "Of the asthma patients analyzed, 55% had Chlamydia-specific IgE antibodies in their lungs compared to 12% of blood donor controls."
Moreover, patients who were treated on the basis of asthma severity with antibiotics had significant improvements in asthma symptoms and some even experienced a complete abolition of these symptoms.
"Physicians should therefore fully explore the involvement of microbes in difficult to treat asthma cases, since there might be a cure for some types of asthma after all," says Drizik.
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A live interview with Eduard Drizik will be webcast Monday, May 23, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. CDT, over the ASM Live uStream channel (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/asm-live). Questions will be taken from the audience via chat room and Twitter.
You know what this may mean? That the increase in asthma cases among the young in the last few decades could be as result of much higher levels of sexual promiscuity in their mothers.
Ping
“You know what this may mean? That the increase in asthma cases among the young in the last few decades could be as result of much higher levels of sexual promiscuity in their mothers.”
No.
STD strains are completely different (Chlamydia trachomatis).
In fact, C. pneumoniae has been re-classified into a different genus (now Chlamidophila pneumoniae) based on a lack of genetic relatedness to the STD strain.
Thanks for the info! You see why I used the word “may”.
Chlamydophila pneumoniae
Sorry for the misspelling.
As far as I can tell this is not an STD but is lung-specific, i.e., pneumonia. Need more research to know.
OMG That is a terrible rumor to start. You are confusing two different organisms with similar sounding names.
BTW - men get STD chlamydia too. Why blame only the girls?
I did not start any rumor, dear lady.
This is a *discussion* board, not a press release site. Read my post and the replies again.
“Why blame only the girls?”
Vertical transmission (mother-to-child) of infectious agents is well described for many infectious agents, by transplacental infection, passage of the infect through an infected birth canal, or by nursing.
Thus, it is a reasonable question.
that should read “...passage of the infant...”
Absolutely, however, the assumption of promiscuity of the woman is unwarranted.
One encounter can get you a trip to the STD clinic. A married woman who is totally monogamous can get it from her husband especially if he is sexually active outside the marriage.
Of course higher frequency and multiple partners increases the probability of all kinds of diseases.
I’d be willing to bet that tobacco smoke residues kill that stuff dead.
bump & a micro ping
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