The World Health Organisation (WHO) is calling for "international efforts" against asthma in its revised bronchial asthma fact sheet (number 206) published this month. It says that action is needed to increase public awareness of the disease and to co-ordinate worldwide epidemiological surveillance to identify both global and regional trends in asthma.
Patients and health professionals should be able to recognise the disease and be aware of the severity of associated problems. In addition, an optimal strategy for the prevention and management of asthma should be developed and implemented, along with further research into the causes of asthma to help develop new treatments, it says. The fact sheet states that 8 per cent of the Swiss population are asthmatic compared with 2 per cent 25 to 30 years ago, and that, in the US, the number of people with asthma has increased by 60 per cent since the early 1980s.