Experts offer guidelines on fighting asthma

Pointing that continuous exposure to severe air pollution in the national capital has triggered medical emergency for asthmatic children, health experts said that it is high time the people learnt how to optimally cope with the situation.

Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) has come out with a new manual named Asthma Training Module (ATM) to learn how not be slave to the incapacitating medical condition, rather be its master. Associate professor paediatrics, AIIMS, Dr S K Kabra emphasised that there is still stigma attached to asthma and parents take some time to accept the diagnosis.

Experts claimed that government’s decision to close schools is only one of the preventive measures taken towards this horror situation itself explains how the condition is worsening day by day. “Asthma education is a continuing process and parents need tools to continue their learning to improve their ability to analyse and manage their child’s illness. To reach the maximum number of children with asthma, educational materials must be designed for home use. The text should be clear and concise so parents and patients can readily understand and use the material. No matter where asthma education takes place, the basic elements to fight asthma should be covered so that the child’s suffering can be measured,” said Dr Kabra.

Experts pointed that ATM promises to provide an effective tool to tackle it. Childhood asthma is one of the most common respiratory illnesses both in office practice as well as emergency department.

“It is important to educate parents on how to identify asthma triggers can help as a long-term strategy to keep control over their child’s asthma with or without medications,” said president of paediatric respiratory society, Dr Varinder Singh.

“All kids need a doctor-prescribed asthma action plan to control symptoms and flare-ups. Many kids with asthma have increasing inflammation in their airways from everyday trigger exposure — they just can’t feel it. Their breathing may sound normal and wheeze-free when their airways are actually narrowing and becoming inflamed, putting them at risk for a flare-up,” Dr Singh added.