Asthma. SJ Dodgson MJoTA 2013 v6n1 p0517
Asthma is a horrible disease, because it kills children and young
people. During my 6 years at Sydney Girls High School, one girl who was a
current student died: she was 15, her name was Janet Brown, and she
died as a result of asthma: her heart stopped when she was sleeping. Her
heart had more burden on it than it could bear, that is what happens
when a young frail body tries so hard to bring in air.
Janet
died in 1966. When the world was on fire in Vietnam, in the United
States because of civil rights protests, in London because of fashion
(fashion?). In Australia we did not notice that the new country of
Nigeria was chewing out its own heart.
Thirty four years later,
in January 2000, at the start of the millennium that was supposed to be
clean, new and nonviolent, a baby was born to a young woman still in
high school, Colleen Finlay. Six months later Colleen was dead from a
massive asthma attack in her parents' house that was so sudden and so
violent that Colleen could not be saved. The father of her baby had died
before the birth, I was not told how.
I would say the saddest
event I have been to with any of my 4 children was going with Miles, who
was 17, to the viewing, and the next day, to Colleen's funeral. She
was his classmate, his friend and the young mother of a baby who was
left with no biological parents.
Asthma kills. That is why it
must be taken seriously. From the CDC and the National library of
Medicine: "Asthma continues to take its toll on Americans, with almost
19
million adults (8.2%) suffering from the disorder in 2010,
according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
The CDC analysis also found that more than 29 million (almost 13 %)
of adults have been diagnosed with the illness at some point in
their lifetime.
Children are also being hit hard by the wheezing and discomfort of
asthma. According to the report, in 2010 about 10 million children had
been diagnosed with asthma in their lifetime and 7 million (9.4%)
still had asthma.
Rates of asthma are rising, not falling, the experts noted. From 2001
to 2010, the proportion of people with asthma increased by almost 15%.
And by 2009, asthma accounted for nearly 3,400 deaths, nearly
480,000 hospitalizations, 1.9 million emergency department visits, and
8.9 million physician office visits."
What really sucks
is that children of African ancestry are more likely to have asthma. To
access MJoTA asthma news about treatment and prevention, click here.
