ABSTRACT
Acute viral respiratory tract infections result in increases in airway responsiveness in both normal subjects (I) and asthmatic patients (2,3) and have been implicated in triggering the initial onset of asthma in a subpopulation of predisposed children (4). Persistent (i.e., low-level viral replication) and latent (expression of viral genes without replication of a complete virus) infections have also been postulated to contribute to the pathogenesis of chronic airway inflammation and tissue remodeling in the repair phase of this response that causes the observed structural changes in the airways of asthmatics (5). This chapter will review the respiratory viruses that are commonly implicated in asthma (Table 1) and discuss the various mechanisms by which viral infections are postulated to contribute to the pathogenesis of asthma.
