RELEASE ON RECEIPT







				                Contact:  Katherine Jackson
                    COMMON COLD LINKED TO CHILDREN'S ASTHMA ATTACKS
	CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA., Sept. 6--The common cold appears to be 
responsible for most asthma attacks that send children to the emergency room, 
suggesting that they should begin medication at the first sign of a cold--a 
runny nose --to prevent hospitalization.  
	Asthma, a chronic affliction of the airways usually accompanied by 
wheezing, is the leading reason children are admitted to the hospital.  In 
1992,the latest year information is available, 4.2 million children had 
asthma episodes, resulting in 193,000 hospitalizations averaging three days.  
	A University of Virginia study found that about 70 percent of 
wheezing children from two to sixteen years old who were admitted to its 
Pediatric Emergency Room during the study had a rhinovirus in their nasal 
secretions, implicating the common cold as the culprit that  triggers most 
wheezing attacks, says Dr. Gary Rakes, assistant professor of pediatrics. 
	Participants were enrolled in the U.Va. study from Jan.1992 through 
May 1994.  Acutely ill children were examined upon arrival in the emergency 
room.  The results were extrapolated from 71 wheezing and 60 control children 
during a 15 month period.
	"We've long  known that colds aggravate asthma, but it was considered 
as just one of many factors that could trigger a wheezing attack. This new 
study suggests that a majority of attacks in children are caused by the common 
cold virus," says Rakes.   
	Wheezing, a whistling sound resulting from narrowing of the 
respiratory passages, occurs most commonly during atttacks of asthma. 
	"The strongest risk factor for wheezing is a combination of having 
allergies and a rhinovirus infection at the same time.   Put those two 
together and there is a strong possibility that  a child will have a wheezing 
attack," Rakes says.   
	"In determining why viral infections cause problems, we found that 
wheezing children with rhinovirus infection are more likely to have 
eosinophils in their nose or blood.  Eosinophils are white blood cells that 
play an important part in the inflammation associated with asthma in older 
children and adults, indicating that viral infections and eosinophilia are 
linked together. 
	"And that's what we are looking at now: the interaction between 
viral infections and eosinophils in children with asthma. We tested for 
rhinovirus in the breathing passages of children by using a process called 
polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which works by amplifying viral genes, so 
that even small amounts of  the virus could be detected," says Rakes. 
	"Hopefully, medications that attack either the virus or the effects 
of viral infection may help us prevent most severe asthma attacks in 
children," he says.
	"In the meantime, we now tell parents of children with asthma to 
increase or begin certain medications at the first sign of a cold." 
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                                          September 5, 1995