World Asthma Day 2018: Significance And Theme

World Asthma Day 2018: The aim is to reduce asthma death rates across the world

World Asthma Day 2018 has "Never too early, never too late. It's always the right time to address airways disease" as its theme. Every year, May 1 is celebrated as World Asthma Day across the world. Organised by Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), this year marks the 20th annual World Asthma Day in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO). The WHO states that a total of 235 million people are suffering from asthma. Asthma is a condition which causes breathlessness, wheezing, coughing and chest tightness. As a health condition, asthma cannot be cured but can be controlled by bringing in a few lifestyle changes. It was in 1998 that the first World Asthma Day was celebrated. Over the years, the day has proved to be one of the most important asthma events globally. As part of World Asthma Day, campaigns, talks and discussions are organised to raise awareness about asthma and the risk factors related to it.

World Asthma Day 2018: The day aims at raising awareness about asthma
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Also read: World Asthma Day: Guidelines To Prevent Asthma Attacks

Asthma is known to be one of the most chronic health conditions among children. All countries have asthma, irrespective of the level of development in that country. However, around 80% of asthma deaths occur in low and lower-middle income countries. If it is under-diagnosed or under-treated, it can create a huge burden on the individuals and families. A person suffering from asthma can face restrictions for lifetime. It can make adults miss work and children miss school. The life-threatening and sometimes dangerous episodes of asthmatic attacks can reduce quality of life of asthma patients.

World Asthma Day 2018 is meant to raise awareness about asthma and asthma control. People with asthma can prevent asthma attacks by avoiding common triggers of asthma like smoke of tobacco, outdoor pollution, cold and flu. Episodes of asthma can also be prevented by using inhalers with corticosteroids and other long-term controlled medicines regularly, in the right dosages.

Also read: Are you Suffering From Asthma? A Healthy Diet Can Rescue You

World Asthma Day 2018 theme

The theme of World Asthma Day 2018 is "Never too early, never too late. It's always the right time to address airways disease." The theme calls out to both patients and healthcare providers to consider and evaluate symptoms, irrespective of the time when they occur. The idea is to ensure that asthma is controlled and prevented in all possible ways.

The theme is decided by GINA every year. It also takes the responsibility of distributing materials and resources to organisers in order to organise programmes and events for raising awareness about asthma. As part of this, various doctors, members of health care organisations and educators come together to inform and educate people about asthma and how to reduce the burden of disease in the country.

Controlling incidence of asthma has become a necessary responsibility of medical professionals as well asthma patients.
 

World Asthma Day: Asthma is a chronic health condition among children
Photo Credit: iStock

World Asthma Day objectives

Improving health care services for asthma is an important objective of World Asthma Day 2018. It is important to identify accurate treatment for asthma at the primary and secondary levels based on standard guidelines for asthma. The aim is to increase the number of people without asthma and decrease the number of people with asthma in order to control the condition in a proper manner. An important objective is also to reduce asthma death rates along with enrolling asthma patients for proper diagnosis and treatment. It is also important to reduce visits to the emergency department because of asthma along with number of days spent by asthma patients in the hospital.