MAY THE 4TH WORLD ASTHMA DAY

Abstract

May the 4th is World Asthma Day (WAD), an international annual event to raise awareness on asthma and encourage better care for this people with asthma. The theme is “You can control your asthma”. Around 30 million people in Europe have asthma. Estimates have shown that the number of people with asthma will grow to as many as 400-450 million people worldwide by 2025. It is estimeted that asthma accounts for about 1 in every 250 deaths worldwide. Many of the deaths are preventable, being due to suboptimal long-term medical care and delay in obtaining help during the final attack. GINA (Global Initiative for Asthma) is one of the founding participants in the World Health Organization's Global Alliance Against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD). Studies of adults and children with asthma have shown that around 50 proc. of those on long-term therapy fail to take medications as directed at least part of the time. Teenagers are less likely to take their asthma medication regularly than other patient groups. Long-acting β2-agonists increase the risk for asthma-related intubations and deaths, when used as monotherapy.