Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) could increase the risk of childhood asthma, according to a new study.

Published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, the research involved the examination of asthma rates in children born to HIV-positive women, including 193 youngsters infected with the virus - 113 treated with HAART and 80 not - and 2,471 who were unaffected.

The rate of asthma medication use in HAART-treated children by the age of 13.5 years was 33.5 per cent, in comparison to 11.5 per cent in kids with HIV who did not receive the treatment.

Further analysis suggested that an increase in T cells - achieved by HAART - was the reason for elevated risk of asthma, which, according to the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Associations, leads to two-thirds of people with the condition not leading a full life.

Dr William Shearer from Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, USA, tells Reuters health: "Investigators have assumed that asthma is not a complication of paediatric HIV infection, because studies (conducted before HAART was introduced in the mid-1990s) did not detect the problem."

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