LAHORE, April 29: Current practices of asthma treatment by most patients fall short of the standard definition of asthma control as defined by the international guidelines.

This was observed by Prof Eric D Bateman, professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Cape Town, while delivering a lecture on “Aiming for total control in asthma management” organised by the Asthma awareness Programme at a local hotel on Saturday.

He said the asthma patients did not understand that they were not leading a normal life and their level of asthma control was only sub-optimal.

The lecture was organised in the backdrop of study on Gaining Optimal Asthma Control (GOAL) conducted upon over 3,000 patients in 44 countries that propounds sustained regular treatment can enable asthma patients (even with severe asthma) to lead a completely normal, symptom-free life.

Prof Bateman, who is one of the leading investigators of the GOAL Study, said the GOAL findings were of paramount importance and serve as a major breakthrough in asthma management. He said the results of a year-long international GOAL Study challenged the way patients currently approach or manage this disease. He said that a considerable percentage of asthmatics in the country avoided indulging in physical, recreational and supportive activities.

He said the new treatment alternatives enabled asthma patients to improve their quality of life and adopt a normal and healthy life style. “It has been proved for the first time that asthma patients can now enjoy a life completely free from asthma symptoms,” he said.

He, however, said attention must be drawn to the need for better asthma management on the part of doctors and patients alike. “The most accurate definition of total control of asthma is the one that vanishes all the signs and features of asthma,” he said.

He said the GOAL Study had established the efficacy of a new combination therapy for asthma and illustrated that the globally recognised treatment guidelines for asthma control were 100 per cent achievable.

SZH: Meanwhile, the Shaikh Zayed Hospital’s pulmonology department has issued a news release stating that asthma has become the most chronic disease as around 300 million people were suffering from this ailment around the world.

It said asthma had become more common in both children and adults around the world in recent decades. The increase in the prevalence of asthma had been associated with an increase in Atopic sensitisation and was parallelled by similar increases in other allergic disorders like eczema and rhinitis.

It said the rate of asthma had increased as communities were adopting western life styles and become urbanised. With the projected increase in the world’s proportion from 45 per cent to 59 per cent urban population in 2005, there was likely to be a marked increase in the number of asthmatics worldwide over the next two years.

It also said that in many areas of the world, persons with asthma did not have access to basic asthma medication or medical care.