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Evidence Of An Infectious Asthma Phenotype: Chlamydia Driven Allergy And Airway Hyperresponsiveness In Pediatric Asthma, Katir Kirit Patel

Open Access Dissertations

Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease affecting young children and adults all over the world. An estimated 34.1 million Americans have reported asthma in their lifetime and the disease costs ~US $56 billion dollars to treat each year. Current treatment is based on a paradigm of asthma as a non-infectious atopic condition whose root cause is inflammation. Chronically administered anti-inflammatory medications, primarily inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), ameliorate asthma symptoms in many patients. However, up to 50% of asthmatics, characterized by neutrophil infiltration, IL-17 secretion and increased risk of fatality are refractory to ICS treatment. Chlamydia pneumoniae, a ubiquitous, obligate …