--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many Parents Unaware of Asthma Risk
- By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, June 14, 2006

(06-14) 15:17 PDT VIENNA, Austria (AP) --

One in three fatal asthma attacks worldwide involves a child with a
mild form of the disease, and nearly half of all parents are unaware of
the risk, according to a global survey presented Wednesday.

The report said the findings exposed a critical information gap between
doctors who treat asthma and parents of youngsters diagnosed with the
condition.

"Many patients with asthma underestimate their disease severity and
overestimate their degree of asthma control," the European Academy of
Allergology and Clinical Immunology warned.

Dr. G. Walter Canonica of the University of Genoa in Italy said the
survey underscored how effective treatment "is a shared responsibility
requiring continuous communication among physicians and children with
asthma and their parents."

Experts said that with each decade, the prevalence of asthma increased
50 percent. Worldwide, more than 300 million people are afflicted, the
Global Initiative for Asthma says.

The World Health Organization said 255,000 people died from asthma in
2005 and that deaths are projected to rise by almost 20 percent in the
next 10 years without urgent action.

"Asthma is an enormous global health problem," said Dr. Nikolai
Khaltaev of WHO's chronic respiratory diseases department. He said the
U.N. agency was looking forward to studying the new report.

Asthma is a chronic lung disease caused by airway inflammation, and
certain stimuli cause the windpipe to become obstructed. Symptoms
include wheezing, coughing and a tightened airway that causes shortness
of breath and can be life-threatening. Allergies are responsible for
more than 50 percent of asthma in adults.

Treatment for the condition costs society more than that for
tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined, the European Academy said.

Its survey of 5,482 asthma patients, their doctors and the parents of
young sufferers focused on cases in Britain, Canada, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.

The academy said the report - issued at its annual conference in
Vienna - was the first sweeping global survey of what parents do and
don't know about the hazards of asthma.

Many parents cut back on treatments such as drug inhalers when their
children suffer side-effects, the study found. Others switch
medications or discontinue treatment altogether, it said, cautioning
that doing so "can be dangerous and greatly impact health outcomes."

Reducing or stopping treatment usually means a child's condition
worsens, the report warned.

"More than three-fourths of children who are not compliant with their
asthma treatment all the time experience at least one of the following:
increased symptoms (66 percent), limited physical activity (48
percent), nighttime awakenings (46 percent) and more frequent asthma
attacks or exacerbations (40 percent)," it said.

Patients who don't follow doctors' orders end up with 38 percent more
visits to physicians and are 14 percent more likely to wind up in an
emergency room or to be hospitalized, the survey said.

Experts said that although 59 percent of parents say they comply with
their doctors' instructions all the time, only 9 percent of physicians
believe them based on the child's symptoms.

Parents and doctors both complain that the other doesn't initiate
discussions about treatment and side-effects.

"Patients with asthma, parents, and the physicians who treat them
should pay close attention to the findings from this survey, which show
that the way we currently treat asthma is unsatisfactory," said Dr.
Erkka Valovirta, a pediatrics specialist at Finland's Turku Allergy
Center.

Khaltaev said asthma is a preventable chronic respiratory disease with
the most important risk factors including air pollution, allergens and
tobacco smoke.

WHO encourages the best possible relationship between doctor and
patient in controlling asthma, he said.

"In the case of children the health care provider-parent-child
relationship is key," Khaltaev told The Associated Press. "Knowledge
and understanding is crucial, as well-educated parents will in turn
create children who are well-educated about their disease and how to
properly control it."

"With proper asthma control there is no reason why a child cannot live
life to the full," he added. "There are many Olympic champions who have
well-controlled asthma."

___

Associated Press writer Alexander G. Higgins contributed to this report
from Geneva.

URL:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/06/14/international/i111005
D30.DTL