News Health & Medicine

Ulcer bug may prevent asthma

By Brian Vastag

- More than 2 years ago

From San Diego, at a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America

HIDDEN BENEFIT. Helicobacter pylori, the tube-like bacterium shown here colonizing a human stomach, causes ulcers but also may prevent childhood asthma. Blaser

Call it a bad-bug, good-bug story. Children whose stomachs carry the bacterium Helicobacter pylori are at lower risk for asthma than children who don’t have the bug, according to an analysis of a nationwide study.