Four gut bacteria decrease asthma risk in infants

Infants can be protected from getting asthma if they acquire four types of gut bacteria by three months of age, new research shows. Asthma rates have increased dramatically since the 1950s and now affect up to 20 per cent of children in western countries. The discovery opens the door to developing probiotic treatments for infants that prevent asthma. The finding could also be used to develop a test for predicting which children are at risk of developing asthma.