Asthma in NZ
increase in rate of child hospital admissions for asthma in 14 years per 100,000 children aged under 15 in 2002 per 100,000 children aged under 15 in 2016 under 15 in 2016 asthma of children have of Maori and Pacific Island children have asthma of adults have asthma — approximate annual asthma death toll More than people are estimated to need medication for asthma More than — the annual cost to society of asthma, including medical treatment and lost productivity.
With the onset of cold and flu season, it is critical that adult asthmatics and parents watch out for asthma symptoms, Associate Professor Jim Reid, University of Otago
the disease each year.
“While we don’t fully understand why the rates of asthma are so high among New Zealand adults and children, more needs to be done to get asthma under control.
“If asthmatics begin to exhibit an increasing wheeze that doesn’t respond to a reliever inhaler, which is usually blue, they have difficulty speaking in full sentences or they begin to turn blue — these are all signs they need immediate medical intervention.”
May 1 is World Asthma Day. Internationally it is estimated that 340 million people are affected by the chronic disease.
University of Auckland paediatrician Professor Innes Asher, chairman of the Global Asthma Network, said: “Asthma affects people of all ages in all parts of the world. Symptoms can include significant difficulty in breathing, which makes ordinary activities extraordinarily hard.
“There are high costs of poorly controlled asthma, including for acute treatment at the doctor, health centre or hospital, lost productivity of people with asthma or parents of children with asthma, and lost education of children who are too unwell to attend school. This amounts to billions of dollars lost to society.”
Reid said the key to getting Kiwis’ asthma under control is a questionnaire on the effects of symptoms.
The test can be taken at pharmacies, doctors’ clinics and at a website run by an asthma medicine supplier.
Reid urged people using an asthma reliever inhaler more than three times a week to take the test and to see their healthcare provider to get the illness under control.