World Asthma Day: The Facts by Prof. Dr. R Narasimhan, Chairman, Respiratory Research Foundation of India (RRFI)

Chennai, April 30, 2022: Prof. Dr. R Narasimhan, Chairman, Respiratory Research Foundation of India (RRFI) today spoke to Reporters to spread the awareness of Asthma on World Asthma Day being being held on 3rd May 2022. On this occasion Dr.Narasimhan spoke on the the Facts and myths of asthma.

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He said that 19.1 million asthmatics are there in US and 5.5. million children suffer from asthma. Asthma is responsible for 1.6 million emergency admissions in US. 80% of deaths occur in low and middle income group countries. Globally 339 million adults suffer from asthma and about 4 million children develop asthma globally.

The number of asthmatic children is dropping significantly due to increase awareness about inhalers. Asthma is commonly linked to smoking, dust, food factors, GERD, psychological factors and infection. Asthma is not a curable disease but an eminently controllable disease.

Inhalers are the best means of delivering the drugs for maintenance. Among the inhalers Steroid inhalers are the best to control and act as preventer. The awareness about inhalers, steroid inhalers and regular use of inhalers are extremely poor among the population.

There is a big gap about the communication, and this is the reason why GINA has coined Bridging the gap as this year's theme.Education of parents with asthmatic children helps in better control of asthma and decrease in school

absenteeism. Asthma is included in the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

A recent Indian Study on Epidemiology of Asthma, Respiratory Symptoms and Chronic Bronchitis (INSEARCH) done with 85,105 men and 84,470 women from 12 urban and 11 rural sites in India estimated the prevalence of asthma in India to be 2.05% among those aged >15 years, with an estimated national burden of 18 million asthmatics.

Among India's 1.31 billion people, about 6% of children and 2% of adults have asthma. Most people do not have health insurance and there is a wide gap in healthcare facilities for rich and poor. Almost all types of inhaled corticosteroids, 32-agonist and combination inhalers are available at pharmacies but these are expensive in comparison to oral formulations.

Barriers in treatment - A large number of patients in India still consider asthma a stigma and therefore conceal the disease. Many believe that inhalers are habit forming and strong medicines. Asthma has different deceptive symptomatic names, such as cough and saans (breathlessness).

Many patients take treatment when they are symptomatic, or symptoms are intolerable, and stop when symptoms subside. Despite these barriers, with frequent and regular patient education programmes, the acceptability of inhaler treatment for bronchial asthma is gradually increasing.

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