Ulcer bug may prevent asthma
By Brian Vastag
From San Diego, at a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
Call it a bad-bug, good-bug story. Children whose stomachs carry the bacterium Helicobacter pylori are at lower risk for asthma than children who don’t have the bug, according to an analysis of a nationwide study.
Starting in the 1980s, H. pylori gained notoriety as the cause of most stomach ulcers. The bug also increases the risk for stomach cancer.