Asthma exacerbations: Understanding role of viral respiratory tract infections and possible treatment strategies

Asthma is common, affecting around 500 billion people worldwide. It is a complex disease influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Upper respiratory tract infections with viruses commonly precipitate severe and sustained asthma exacerbations (AEs). Exacerbations are responsible for the enormous amount of emotional and economic stress apart from imposing risk of hospitalization and even death. Hence, agents targeting these infections can contribute toward decreasing asthma morbidity and associated financial burden. Over the past years novel, pharmacological therapies are evolved for the treatment of asthma, but their exact role in exacerbations is still unclear. This article reviews the role of respiratory viral infections in AEs and discusses role of new therapeutic approaches to overcome it. Medline, Medscape, EMBASE, Cochrane database, Scopus and clinicaltrials.gov were searched using terms such as asthma, AE and viral respiratory infections. Journal articles published from 2000 to 2013 describing AEs were screened.