Medical Matters Muiris HoustonMrs Barry was a regular visitor to the surgery with her two young sons.
Both had asthma, but recently the number of flare-ups had increased following a period when their condition had been quite stable.
Despite preventive treatment with steroid inhalers and careful attention to possible exacerbating factors such as house dust mites, feather pillows and pets, the six- and eight-year-olds' breathing problems continued.
The Barrys lived on the seventh floor of a block of corporation flats in a deprived area of Dublin.
It was only after a house call to see one of the boys that the likely reason for the asthma deterioration became apparent.
A number of bedrooms in the flat were damp, with wallpaper hanging down and visible water stains on the walls.
In addition, there were several fungus-like growths where the ceiling met the walls.
A series of studies have found a link between dampness in the home and the exacerbation of asthma symptoms.
I explained this to Mrs Barry: she agreed to move the boys to another bedroom, while I wrote to the Corporation housing department asking it to undertake urgent repairs to the flat.
What I could not say at the time was whether the dampness had caused the boys' asthma. But research just published in the European Respiratory Journal has found that damp and mould in the home can contribute to the onset of childhood asthma.
A Finnish study of some 120 newly diagnosed children with asthma, aged from one to seven years, found that up to 20 per cent of cases of asthma may be caused by high levels of damp and mould in the home.
The research, by doctors from the National Public Health Institute at the University of Kuopio, matched the children with asthma with a control group who did not have breathing problems.
They then asked experienced civil engineers to assess the level of damp and mould in the children's homes.
The results were unequivocal: signs of serious damp or visible mould were observed two to three times more often in homes inhabited by children with asthma than in the homes of their healthy peers.
And moisture damage in the main living areas or in the child's bedroom was especially associated with asthma.
"Damp in the home does more than merely exacerbate existing asthma: it can contribute to the onset of persistent asthma," the authors conclude.
This interesting study is not just relevant to people with asthma; it is a reminder of how the environment in general, and housing in particular, can affect our health.
There has been a dearth of quality research looking at the relationship between housing and health. But a paper published this month in the British Medical Journal has helped fill the gap.
Dr Philippa Howden-Chapman and her colleagues at the University of Otago in New Zealand set out to assess whether insulating older houses would improve occupants' health and wellbeing.
The study of 1,350 houses and 4,400 people was particularly well designed: it randomly allocated the homes to an intervention group, where insulation was installed, and a control group, which were left the way they were. (In the interest of equity, households in the control group were insulated at the end of the study).
At the outset, three-quarters of households, most of which were situated in lower socioeconomic areas, reported mould.
But after insulation, the odds of insulated households reporting dampness or mould decreased significantly.
What about the health of those living in the insulated homes?
They were half as likely to experience respiratory symptoms such as wheezing as those in the control group.
Occupants were less likely to be admitted to hospital with breathing conditions. And those living in insulated homes visited their GP less often.
These and other improvements were achieved at a cost of £700 (€1,028) per house.
The study helps to resolve the conundrum of whether low income rather than substandard housing is the main problem underlying health inequality.
As the authors point out, it is easier to upgrade housing than to redistribute income.
A recent report by the Public Health Alliance, Health Inequalities on the Island of Ireland, pointed to a strong causal relationship between poor housing, fuel poverty and adverse health, with people over 65 years of age accounting for 87 per cent of excess winter deaths in the Republic.
And it notes that low-income households in Northern Ireland face many risks of disadvantage, including poorer local environment and higher rates of premature mortality.
I am pleased to report that the area the Barrys live in is now undergoing regeneration. With better insulation and modern design, damp and mould should not be part of life in their new home.
Not alone does better housing reduce health inequality but it also brings real benefits for personal health.
Dr Muiris Houston is pleased to hear from readers at mhouston@irish-times.ie but regrets that he cannot answer individual medical queries.