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La. Expert: Allergies a Problem Year-Round Head of Asthma, Allergy Group Urges Continuous Monitoring, Treatment to Fight Disease

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 May 2005, 15:00 CDT

NEW ORLEANS - Medical textbooks say September is the peak month for children to experience asthma attacks, but the incoming president of the Louisiana Society of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology says allergies don't pay attention to the calendar in this state.

While most lay people believe spring allergy season provokes the worst asthma symptoms, Louisiana residents are exposed year-round to pollinating grasses and mold, says Jane El-Dahr, who also is a professor of pediatrics in allergy and clinical immunology at Tulane University Health Sciences Center.

Other common allergens such as dust mites and cockroaches that thrive in Louisiana's humid climate also can wreak havoc all year long on the respiratory systems of asthma sufferers, El-Dahr says.

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disorder often arising from allergies and accompanied by labored breathing, chest constriction, coughing and wheezing.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences says allergic asthma is the most common form of the disorder, affecting half of asthma patients.

Asthma kills roughly 5,000 Americans yearly. About a third of the children who die from the lung disease were considered to have mild asthma and had no previous hospital admissions for the disease, El- Dahr says.

"The number of deaths annually is absolutely appalling," El-Dahr said. "With the current medications and understanding we have today about asthma, there is no reason for anyone to die. These are unnecessary deaths."

Most asthma patients overestimate the level of control they have over their disease, El-Dahr says, and parents overestimate their child's level of control despite the fact that nearly half of those children had to miss days of school because of their asthma.

"Parents need to know that asthma is a year-round problem, so good asthma control and monitoring should be year-round," she said.

Recent research conducted by El-Dahr and her colleagues charted the number of emergency department visits of more than 3,000 children with asthma in New Orleans, Charlottesville, Va., and Tucson, Ariz. In Charlottesville, the number of emergencies peaked in September, just as the medical textbooks predict. But there was no spike in emergency room visits in New Orleans or Tucson at any time during the year, she said.

"We would like to see people with asthma staying vigilant all year long to maximize asthma control," El-Dahr said. "Even a person with mild asthma can have a severe attack."

El-Dahr and her colleagues are working to implement the use of asthma action plans statewide. The customized, written guidelines for the asthmatic and the patient's family to follow clearly spell out the proper medications and when to use them, when to call the doctor, and when to go to the emergency department.

The Louisiana Society of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology also will be promoting to doctors a simple, one-page questionnaire to ask patients about their asthma.

Questions include if the child woke up at night wheezing or coughing more than twice in the past month, if the child avoided exercise because of asthma symptoms, and if the child needed the rescue medicine albuterol more than twice a week in the past month.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the prevalence of asthma in the United States has been increasing since the 1980s and is currently estimated to affect 20 million people.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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