Asthma in children may worsen for at least six months after a SARS-CoV-2 infection, researchers warn on the back of the first large-scale study into asthma outcomes following a PCR-confirmed  infection.

The US team studied nearly 62,000 children with asthma who had PCR tests for the virus in the first year of the pandemic, including more than 7700 who tested positive.

Infected children had significantly more asthma visits, hospitalisations, emergency inhaler use and steroid treatments during the six months after their illness compared to children who tested negative, the study found. 

They also had worse asthma control in the first six months after infection, compared to their own prior history, the researchers reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.