Only half of asthma patients are cured. Consequences can be serious

From allergies to asthma. What is the Allergy March?

- I can’t rationally explain it. Treatment is becoming more modern, it is accompanied by fewer side effects, and methods of drug administration are becoming more and more perfect. However, all too often the doctor offers the patient a treatment option and the patient refuses it. - comments prof. doctor hab. Dr. Marek Kulus, Chairman of the Asthma Coalition. The professor is in daily contact with patients as head of the Clinic for Pediatric Pneumology and Allergology at the Independent Public Children’s Clinical Hospital in Warsaw.

The problem is big, as once again pointed out by the Association of Journalists for Health. It is estimated that up to 45 percent of people experience symptoms of an allergic disease at some point in their lives. And untreated or poorly treated allergies are the easiest way to get asthma.

Doctors call it the Allergy March. If a person develops allergy symptoms at a young age, unfortunately, they may have an increased risk of developing asthma later in life. Recall that allergy is a chronic inflammatory process. If a person does not want to treat it, then it is likely that in the future the inflammation will develop to such an extent that the symptoms will worsen and asthma will develop. Other diseases may also arise, because common mechanisms, unfortunately, cause the transition of one disease to another. For example, rhinitis very often coexists with asthma, these diseases can “complement” each other in an unfavorable way, and therefore it is necessary to look at the problem in a complex way. Professor Kulus says.

The first symptoms of asthma - how to recognize this disease?

Therefore, you need to pay special attention to the first symptoms of bronchial asthma. At the beginning, a dry, tiresome cough usually appears, which becomes more intense with physical exertion or under the influence of an allergen. There is also a feeling of shortness of breath and wheezing.

- Coughing by itself does not necessarily mean asthma, nor does shortness of breath or wheezing by itself. However, if at least two of these symptoms are present together, the family doctor should make a diagnosis of bronchial asthma. Prescribe anti-asthma drugs and refer the patient to a specialist - notes Piotr Dąbrowiecki, MD, Chairman of the Polish Federation of Asthma, Allergy and COPD Associations, an allergist from the Department of Infectious Diseases and Allergology of the Military Medical Institute of the National Research Institute in Warsaw.

Meanwhile, in Poland, the waiting time for an asthma diagnosis is as much as 7 years. Cause? Patients put off a visit to the doctor, thinking that the symptoms will pass. Or they assume that since they have had them for years - like their parents or grandparents - then this is their individual feature. This is wrong thinking. Family ailments should be treated as a suggestion that something alarming is happening. Maybe mom or grandpa had asthma too and didn’t know about it.

Family doctors too rarely refer patients to specialists

There is another reason why patients do not turn to specialists. Only a quarter of all general practitioners base their diagnosis and treatment of asthma on the latest standards developed by GINA (Global Asthma Initiative).

Studies show that only 25 percent of general practitioners are familiar with the latest asthma management standards. In addition, every second of us, medical specialists, stopped at the level of education 10-15 years ago. This may be why it takes so long to make a diagnosis that only 20 percent of patients have controlled asthma, 30 percent have uncontrolled asthma and abuse short-acting bronchodilators, and half of patients are under control of their disease. Thus, it may take several years for severe asthma to develop. – comments Peter Dombrovetsky.

Therefore, the Polish Federation of Asthma, Allergy and COPD Associations encourages family physicians to take into account that a patient may have asthma when making a diagnosis. Severe forms of the disease are increasingly diagnosed in clinics. In Poland, there may be up to 40,000 people with severe asthma.. Only a few percent are cured. If they received specialized treatment (including biological), their health and quality of life could improve significantly.

- The remaining half of the patients, after optimization of treatment, return home and function normally. Sometimes it is enough to add a drug, conduct a triple therapy or learn how to inhale inhalation drugs correctly. It is important that the patient has a long-term plan for treatment and management of exacerbations written down and discussed with the attending physician. - says Peter Dombrovetsky, MD.

Reviews of patients with asthma

Patients also believe that early diagnosis is the key to success. They shared their observations in the report “Life with severe asthma. The patient’s point of view. The publication was created on the initiative of the Polish Society of Allergists. It is available on the Asthma Coalition website.

- General practitioners should educate patients with less severe asthma about the possible consequences. If I knew that this is not the end, that there is something else, something much worse, that there is severe asthma … If I knew what my life with this asthma would be like, I would do everything to prevent it. is the opinion of 39-year-old Krzysztof. He developed asthma when he was six months old. He doesn’t know what it means to live without asthma. When he was thirty, his illness took a serious form. He also faces overweight, nasal polyps, gastroesophageal reflux, and hypertension.

Source: Materials of the Association of Journalists for Health