Progress in Understanding the Link Between RSV Infection and Recurrent Wheezing

Severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis is associated with subsequent wheezing and childhood asthma, but the pathogenesis is poorly understood. To assess the role of previous RSV infection in wheezing during the first year of life, researchers in the Netherlands randomized 429 healthy, late preterm infants (33 to 35 weeks' gestation) to receive monthly injections of either the monoclonal antibody palivizumab or placebo during the RSV season.

Parents, who were blinded to whether their children received antibody or placebo, were asked to keep a log of their infants' respiratory tract illness (including wheeze) for the first year of life and to obtain nasopharyngeal swabs specimens if illness lasted more than 1 day. Swabs were an…