Severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection has been hypothesised to be a risk factor for the development of allergy and asthma, but epidemiological studies in older children have been inconclusive. The current study hypothesises that the effect of RSV bronchiolitis might be most prominent during the first year after bronchiolitis.Forty-two infants had experienced RSV bronchiolitis severe enough to cause hospitalisation. For each child with RSV infection, two controls were acquired from a birth cohort and matched for date of birth and sex. All the children were followed prospectively and underwent a follow-up examination at a mean age of 1 yr, which included physical examination, and serum immunoglobulin (Ig) E tests for common food and inhaled allergens.Risk factors for the development of recurrent wheezing and IgE antibodies were analysed for the whole group of 126 children. A positive test for IgE antibodies was noted in 14 of 42 (33%) RSV children and in 2 of 84 (2.3%) children in the control group. RSV bronchiolitis was the most important risk factor for allergic sensitisation. Likewise, 13 children (15.5%) of the RSV group and three (3.6%) children of the control group suffered from recurrent wheezing, and RSV bronchiolitis posed a considerable risk for recurrent wheezing.Severe respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis during the first year of life is an important risk factor for the development of recurrent wheezing and sensitisation to common allergens during the subsequent year. Eur Respir J 2002; 20: 1277-1283 In infants and toddlers under the age of 2 yrs, the virus most frequently isolated during wheezing episodes is respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) [1,2]. Acute respiratory failure associated with severe bronchospasm, hypoxia, and carbon dioxide retention necessitate hospitalisation of a fraction of y1-2% of RSV-infected children [3]. A close link between RSVinduced bronchiolitis and development of asthma has been identified in several studies [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. However, there are conflicting results concerning an association between RSV bronchiolitis and allergic sensitisation. While some studies found bronchiolitis a considerable high-risk factor for allergic sensitisation [6,8], others did not [11-13, 15, 16]. The reason for this apparent contradiction is not clear. Differently recruited control groups, a difference in assessment of atopy and a different severity of RSV-induced illness in the index group [7] were discussed as explanations for conflicting results. In most studies, children were assessed at the age of 8-12 yrs. It might be possible that different rates of sensitisation at an earlier time point may be missed. Interestingly, there are two studies assessing the same cohort at 1 yr [6] or 5.5 yrs [8] of age for the first time, and at 7 [7] or 10 [9] yrs of age, respectively, for a second time.Whereas in both studies the first assessment revealed a higher number of allergic sensitisations in the index compared with the control group, at the second ...