There could be good news for individuals who suffer from asthma. A new study done at the University of Texas Southwestern has revealed that because not all asthma stems from the same causes that it requires different treatment. Researchers say they found that asthma from infection must be treated differently than asthma from allergies.

Researchers already knew that lung infections can linger and cause asthma later. What they now know is that a certain gene influences how severe a bout of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection will be. Therefore researchers say that a different strategy might be in order to treat asthma that arises from M. pneumonia, and other infections, versus asthma that arises from allergies.

"What this shows is that infectious asthma might have a different mechanism than allergic asthma. Most people think asthma is asthma, but it may be multifaceted," Dr. Robert Hardy, an infectious disease specialist at UT Southwestern, said in a statement Wednesday.

He explained that information has broad implications in treating the disease.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control more than 20 million Americans now have asthma and another 10 million have been diagnosed with the ailment at some point in their lives.

Hardy's research focused on people with what is called walking pneumonia, the least severe form of pneumonia, it represents about 20 to 30 percent of pneumonia cases.

The study appears in the January edition of "Infection and Immunity."