Rantala et al. refer to my earlier work associating Chlamydia pneumoniae antibodies with asthma (their references 8 & 9) and then state "acute respiratory infections as determinants of adult-onset asthma have not been studied." I would like to draw the readers' attention to another of my articles (Hahn DL, McDonald R. Can acute Chlamydia pneumoniae infection initiate chronic asthma? Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 1998;81:339-44) describing 5 adults who developed new-onset asthma after acute C. pneumoniae infections. Causality was further supported by the fact that all 5 had complete and lasting disappearance of all asthma symptoms after a prolonged courses of anti-chlamydial antimicrobial therapy, suggesting that early treatment of new-onset asthma may prevent the development of chronic asthma. This agrees with the authors' suggestion that reducing infections might be beneficial in preventing (progression of) asthma.

David L. Hahn