'Two asthma sufferers die every week’

TWO people die of asthma every week in Ireland, a medical expert warned yesterday.

Every day more than 70 people attend A&E departments suffering from a severe asthma attack and more than 16 need to be admitted to hospital.

Ireland has the world’s fourth-highest number of asthmatics per head of population, with about 470,000 suffering from the condition.

Consultant respiratory physician Dr John Faul said people whose asthma is properly treated should not experience any symptoms.

But a recent study showed 74% of asthma patients are not managing their condition properly and experience regular symptoms, leading to over-reliance on their reliever and under-treatment of the disease.

Now an inhaler called Symbicort SMART has been found to be 20% more effective at treating asthma symptoms, meaning a separate reliever inhaler is no longer needed. The treatment can also help patients manage their asthma more effectively and therefore reduce the number of potentially life-threatening asthma attacks.

“We have now discovered that, if the maintenance inhaler is taken when there are symptoms as well, it is much better,” said Dr Faul. To develop asthma, people seem to need to have been born with a predisposition for the disease. It may not reveal itself until they have been exposed to some asthma irritants. The condition can be triggered by irritants such as allergens, infections drugs, particularly aspirin, beta blockers and stress.

Dr Faul said patients tended to over-rely on their symptom relief inhaler when experiencing a worsening of their symptoms and were slow to return to their doctor to review their maintenance medication.

SMART patients were receiving their treatment with every inhalation, helping to ensure their asthma was well controlled.

Dr Faul said the treatment has been included in international treatment guidelines on best practice in the prevention and treatment of asthma as the evidence was overwhelming.