Irish children top EU asthma sufferers

IRISH children are far more likely to have asthma than those in other EU countries, according to a European survey.

A study reveals that more than 250,000 Irish people have asthma and the number is rising.

More than one in 10 Irish people suffer from the disease which blights young lives and can kill.

The alarming rise of asthma in Ireland was revealed in a study carried out by the European Commission.

Ireland's 10.5% rate is way above the EU average of 7.2% the figure in Germany is just 3.7%.

The rate among youngsters is six times as high as it was 25 years ago and about 75 people get asthma each year.

According to the Asthma Society of Ireland this country is facing an epidemic.

There has been a huge increase in asthma numbers throughout the developed world in recent years. Ireland is ranked among the top four in the world.

Asthma affects 274,280 here, making us one of the worst countries in the world to be affected by the condition.

At least one in seven Irish children (15%) and one in 20 adults (equal to 5%) are sufferers.

"In order to put an actual figure on this asthma epidemic, we applied the above averages to the latest available population statistics for Ireland," said the Asthma Society. "We took age 16 as the cut-off age for children. Infants under one year of age were excluded from the calculations."

According to the society, figures issued recently in Dublin paint an even more startling picture.

As part of the ongoing study by the International Study on Allergic Asthma in Children, researchers in St James's Hospital and National Children's Hospital, Tallaght, have come up with a 3% increase in asthma prevalence among Irish teenagers in the space of just three years.

"In 1995, the researchers studied 3,000 youngsters aged 13-14, randomly selected from 30 schools covering all eight health board areas of Ireland.

They discovered that 15.2% had asthma," said the researchers. "Three years later in 1998, the researchers studied a different set of 3,000 teenagers aged 13-14 in the same schools. This time they found that 18.3% had asthma."

The latest EU survey points to changing patterns in hygiene and eating.

One theory is that increasing levels of hygiene and the resultant lack of exposure to infections and allergens leave children with less immunity to asthma.

"In relation to diet, I believe this is linked to the change from locally produced food to ready prepared stuff, fast food and junk foods," said Professor Anthony Seaton of Aberdeen University.

The EU survey, entitled Health, Food and Alcohol and Safety, was carried out in January and February this year and involved some 10,000 people in each country.