On this World Asthma Day, May 3, 2022, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which the European Respiratory Society is a founding member, calls on international respiratory communities to work together with colleagues, patients, communities and health care providers to close the gaps in asthma care.
Although asthma cannot be cured, it is possible to control symptoms and reduce or prevent asthma attacks or exacerbations.
There are key gaps in care which require intervention to reduce preventable suffering, as well as the costs incurred from uncontrolled asthma.
In addition to unequal access to diagnosis and treatment, current gaps in asthma care include:
- unequal care between different socio-economic groups, populations, and ages
- in access and affordability of recommended inhaled medication globally
- in communication and care across the primary/secondary/tertiary care
- in education for people with asthma and quality of asthma care plans
- in asthma knowledge and awareness between health care providers
- between scientific evidence and actual delivery of care for people with asthma.
Global Initiative for Asthma’s (GINA) regularly updated and evidence-based strategy documents can help to address these disparities. However, implementing recommendations based on scientific evidence is challenging – not all local solutions are applicable globally and global recommendations may not be applicable locally. So, this year, the challenge is for international respiratory communities to work together to identify and close the gaps in asthma care, and to help implement and share innovative solutions locally and globally.
Find out more about World Asthma Day awareness-raising activities at www.ginasthma.org.
The American Thoracic Society provides patient fact sheets on asthma treatment as well as other respiratory disorders.
The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organisation comprised of the world’s leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally through its 70,000+ members.
FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), Asociación Latino Americana De Tórax (ALAT), European Respiratory Society (ERS), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (The Union), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).