A team at The University of Manchester have found that in a minority of patients they studied, a standard treatment for asthma—oral steroids—was associated with increased levels of the treatable mold Aspergillus in the lung.
The findings could be of valuable help to asthmatics who endure severe and difficult to treat symptoms, by giving doctors the information they need to plan their care more effectively.
The team stress there is no danger to asthmatics from steroid therapy and that patients should continue taking their steroid inhalers or tablets as prescribed.
About 40 percent of people with severe asthma have allergies to the mold Aspergillus in their lungs.
