KARACHI, April 30: Like elsewhere across the globe, various scientific and public awareness programmes have been planned by health care organisations and asthma educators in the city to mark the World Asthma Day (WAD), which is observed every year on the first Tuesday of May.

The first WAD was celebrated in 1998 in more than 35 countries. The WAD theme for this year is “You can control your asthma”.

It is claimed that about 300 million people, including 7.5 million Pakistani adults and children, worldwide have asthma. Recent estimates have shown that an additional 100 to 150 million persons are likely to have asthma by 2025 throughout the world, said an expert, adding asthma can be controlled through proper management of the disease.

Researchers believe that people with asthma have trouble breathing as their airways become inflamed due to various factors like polluted air, increase in air particulates because of unplanned soil erosions and industrial emissions, and in-house deposits left by dust mites.

For education and awareness among people, Aga Khan University will organise a seminar on May 2 at its auditorium. Speakers include Dr Javaid A Khan, Dr Suleman Haque, Dr Javed Hussain and Dr Anwar Shafi.On Monday, a couple of chest specialists said at a press briefing five out of every 100 persons in Pakistan suffered from asthma. The sitting was organised by Asthma Awareness Programme.

Dr Sohail Akhtar and Dr Naseeruddin Mahmood maintained that asthma was one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. Recent estimates have shown that an additional 100 to 150 million persons are likely to have asthma by 2025, according to the doctors.

They said that it was now understood that asthma was a two-component disease, consisting of both airway inflammation and airway smooth muscle dysfunction such as bronchoconstriction. These symptoms are recurrent, and vary in severity over time.

They reminded that asthma symptoms were intermittent, but the underlying disease was always present. “For many patients, medication must be taken every day and sustained at the correct level to control symptoms, improve lung function and prevent attacks. Medications may also be required to relieve acute symptoms”, they said.