IN THE NEWS – GLOBAL ASTHMA REPORT for 2018!!

Compiled for CrossDove Writers

2018 GLOBAL ASTHMA REPORT PRESS RELEASE!

(This is a Press Release from August of 2018 from the Global Asthma Network.)   

The Global fight to improve asthma has ramped up.

            A new global campaign to combat asthma is being led by the Global Asthma Network.

            At the end of August, 2018, the Global Asthma Network released a Global Asthma Report for 2018 in Helsinki, Finland, at the General Meeting of the Global Alliance Against Chronic Respiratory Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO).

            The Global Asthma Report of 2018 is an 88-page report which is a cutting edge State-of-the-Art document, with contributions from 53 experts around the globe. The Report is an update on the state of asthma globally, including research data on asthma hospital admissions, mortality, prevalence, severity, and burden, risk factors and management.

            A large proportion of people in the world with asthma are not getting adequate treatment. This Report includes 17 chapters, with up-to-date information, and has several key recommendations to WHO, Governments, Health Authorities, Health Professionals, Professional Societies, and Patient Organizations.

            The Global Asthma Network will launch the Global Asthma Report 2018 in Helsinki, Finland at the end of August.

            Asthma is put in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the non-communicable disease (NCD) agenda.

            “Political commitment and action are required to make the burden of asthma a thing of the past,” says Professor Innes Asher, Chairman of the Global Asthma Network. “If these recommendations were followed, the serious burden of asthma globally would be reduced.”

            “Millions of people suffer from asthma because they do not get access to the medicines that lessen their breathing difficulties,” she says. “Avoidable asthma deaths – about 1,000 per day – are still occurring due to inappropriate management of asthma, including over-reliance on reliever medication rather than preventer medication.”

            Professor Asher continued by saying, “Asthma is a particularly serious burden in low- and middle-income countries which are least able to afford the costs. Economies suffer because asthma keeps people away from work, or if they are at work, asthma stops them from working effectively.”

            The economic costs of asthma in Europe in 2011 was 19 billion Euros.

            Good long-term management can reduce the burden of asthma by including the use of relatively simple measures within a systematic national or local strategy which can improve early detection of asthma and provide effective preventive treatments.

            “Quality-assured essential asthma medicines are not available to many people with asthma,” added Professor Asher. “Guaranteed access to affordable quality-assured essential asthma medicines is vital to improving asthma outcomes.”

            “While our knowledge has increased, there remains significant gaps in the data about asthma,” concluded Professor Asher. “New Surveys are needed to update asthma trends, assess the burden of asthma, examine access to effective management and understand the causes. The Global Asthma Network is currently undertaking a new study of global surveillance of prevalence, severity, management and risk factors.”

            There are currently 353 centers in 135 countries involved in some way with the Global Asthma Network, with 127 centers in 53 countries registered and participating in Global Asthma Network Phase I.           

            For more information check out or contact the following:

  • www.globalasthmanetwork.org
  • Professor Innes Asher, Chairman of the Global Asthma Netrwork. Pediatrics – Child and Youth Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland, Privat Bag 92019, Auckland 1142 New Zealand. Phone – +64-9-373-7599, ext. 86743. Fax – +64-9-373-7486. Mobile Phone – +64-21-492-262. i.asher@auckland.ac.nz.
  • Professor Guy Marks, Steering Group of the Global Asthma Network. University of New South Wales – Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiology, South Western Sydney Clinical School, UNSW, Goulburn St, NSW 2170, Australia. Work Phone +61-2-8738-3844. Fax – +61-2-9114-0465. Email – guy.marks@sydney.edu.au.
  • Professor Asma El Sony, Steering Group of the Global Asthma Network. Director of the Epidemiological Laboratory (Epi-Lab), Epidemiological Laboratory (Epi-Lab) for Public Health, Research and Development at Khartoum, Sudan. Work Phone – 249-1551-5224. Fax – 249-1551-5224. Email – asmaelsoney@gmail.com.