http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article
_id=352386&in_page_id=1774
"Scientists hail asthma breakthrough
15:23pm 15th June 2005

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Scientists in Manchester have reached a "key milestone" in their study
of the treatment of severe asthma, it emerged today.

The Manchester University researchers have discovered that the
condition can be triggered by an allergic reaction to types of fungi -
such as household mould, damp and dead leaves.

They are now testing a drug which could prevent sufferers having the
sort of attacks that require hospital treatment.

Previously, severe asthma attacks have been blamed on air pollutants
like dust mites, pollen or animal hair.

But the scientists, based at Manchester's Wythenshawe Hospital, believe
they have found a new culprit.

Their research shows the condition can also be caused by tiny spores of
common airborne fungi, which outnumber pollen grains by almost 1,000 to
one and are invisible to the naked eye.

Although most people do not have a reaction, when severe asthmatics
inhale the spores their airways are thought to narrow, making it harder
for them to breathe.

Severe asthma in adults affects between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of
the UK's five million asthmatics, and skin tests indicated that up to
70 per cent of these sufferers were allergic to at least one type of
airborne fungi.

The scientists are now starting a trial to test a drug, which could
kill the fungus inhaled into the body and prevent attacks, on 100
asthmatics.

The antibiotic would not provide a cure for all asthmatics because it
is only severe strains of the condition that are triggered by fungi,
but it could still save countless lives."