A new understanding has been brought to light concerning the common cause of respiratory tract infections in babies and young children.
According to the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital, they have found that respiratory syncytial viruses (RSV) are infections that are passed from the mother to her unborn baby.
The research was conducted on rats, which showed that RSV was able to pass freely through the placenta from the mother’s respiratory tract; it meant that the infant was at risk of having lung problems that were previously encountered by the mother.
The rats were given RSV during midterm pregnancy. As a result, 30% of foetuses also gained RSV, whilst 40% had RSV present in their lungs. In adulthood, RSV was present in 25%.
“Epidemiologic evidence suggests that early-life RSV infection predisposes children to recurrent wheezing and asthma,” said Giovanni Piedimonte, M.D., the study’s lead author and Chairman of Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital and the Pediatric Institute. “This study challenges the current paradigm that RSV infection is acquired only after birth and shifts attention to prenatal effects of the virus, which may result in more severe and lasting consequences by interfering with an unborn baby’s critical developmental processes.”
The research offers an extra perspective on the causes of asthma and respiratory problems.
It was originally thought that children developed breathing issues as they grew older, but the new speculation suggests that the child is already born with the disorder.
With new understandings about the cause of asthma, the issues may be observed far more closely in terms of noticing RSVs.
Every expecting parent wants their child to be as healthy as can be. The new study shows how delicate the deciding factor is between a healthy baby and a poorly one. The research is just one more step to ensure that the latter is less likely to occur.