Despite the call for a massive scale-up of efforts to address non-communicable diseases which include asthma, there has been no sign of any new international mechanisms for funding the start-up of proper asthma management programmes with quality-assured essential medicines.
Asthma affects around 235 million people worldwide. Most asthma-related deaths occur in low- and lower-middle income countries.
Asthma is a chronic disease characterised by recurrent attacks of breathlessness and wheezing, which vary in severity and frequency from person to person. Symptoms may occur several times in a day or week in affected individuals, and for some people become worse during physical activity or at night.
Asthma cannot be cured, but proper diagnosis, treatment and patient education can result in good asthma control and management. For effective control, it is essential to make medications affordable and available.
In many low- and middle countries, the large majority of asthma patients are only treated on an emergency basis — when they arrive at a hospital with an acute attack of asthma. Part of the problem in these countries is that quality-assured asthma inhalers, especially the inhaled corticosteroids that are essential for life long to well-managed asthma, are not available. If they are available, the cost is usually prohibitively expensive. Another barrier is: the health services lack the strategy, systems and trained staff for providing good asthma care.
Experts urged to set up sustainable financing strategies for asthma medicines. Some pilot projects in low-income countries show that asthma can be addressed effectively. The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) has been working for long to scale up asthma care and make quality-assured essential asthma medicines and asthma care accessible for all. But a coordinated approach is needed to make asthma care, a priority and place in the centre of fight against non-communicable diseases.