May 02, 202122 February 2022
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World Asthma Day 2021 May 5, 2021 -Velia Malizia, IRIB CNR researcher inside Video.

This year’s World Asthma Day theme is “Uncovering Asthma Misconceptions”. The theme provides a call to action to address common widely held myths and misconceptions concerning asthma that prevent persons with asthma from enjoying optimal benefit from the major advances in the management of this condition. Common misconceptions surrounding asthma include:

  1. Asthma is a childhood disease; individuals will grow out of it as they age.
  2. Asthma is infectious.
  3. Asthma sufferers should not exercise.
  4.  Asthma is only controllable with high dose steroids.

The Truth is:

  1. Asthma can occur at any age (in children, adolescents, adults and elderly)
  2.  Asthma is not infectious. However, viral respiratory infections (such as common cold and the flu) can cause asthma attacks. Or In children, asthma is frequently associated with allergy, but asthma which starts in adulthood is less often allergic.
  3. When asthma is well controlled, asthma subjects are able to exercise and even perform top sport.
  4. Asthma is most often controllable with low dose inhaled steroids.

 

World Asthma Day (WAD) (May 5, 2021) is organized by the Global Initiative for Asthma, (GINA) (www.ginasthma.org), a World Health Organization collaborative organization founded in 1993. WAD is held each May to raise awareness of Asthma worldwide.
WHO recognizes that asthma is of major public health importance. According to WHO, it was estimated that more than 339 million people had Asthma globally (1) and there were 417,918 deaths due to asthma at the global level in 2016. (3, 4).Although asthma cannot be cured, it is possible to manage asthma to reduce and prevent asthma attacks, also called episodes or exacerbations.1

 

REFERENCES:

  1.  World Health Report. Geneva: World Health Organization. Available from URL: http://www.who.int/respiratory/asthma/en/, 2018.
  2.  Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 328 diseases and injuries for 195 countries, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet 2017; 390: 1211–59.
  3. Network GA. The Global Asthma Report, Auckland, New Zealand. (2018).
  4. Global Health Estimates 2016: Deaths by Cause, Age, Sex, by Country and by Region, 2000-2016. Geneva, World Health Organization; 2018.