The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) is holding a four-day campaign to educate people on asthma, in support of World Asthma Day which falls on May 4.

The campaign is developed and executed in close collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline, one of the leading companies in respiratory medicine.

According to the AIRGNE study conducted last year across the Gulf and Near East, the most recent of its kind, 53 per cent of children in the UAE had been absent from school due to asthma, while another 77 per cent of respondents had unscheduled emergency visits.

The campaign which started on May 1, aims to educate asthma patients and the general public about asthma, its impact on lives and how it can be managed day-to-day.

As part of the experience, visitors to the education centre located in Fashion Catwalk at The Dubai Mall, will be given the opportunity to try a spirometer and find out how well their lungs function and discover their lung age.

66 per cent of people interviewed for the AIRGNE research had never undergone such a test, a statistic the DHA would like to see decreased.

“The impact on Asthma especially on young children drastically affects their quality of life because many of them cannot even attend school due to chronic asthma. The problem we face in the UAE is the lack of awareness about this condition,” stated  Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Saif Kalban, CEO of the Primary Healthcare Sector at the DHA.

“For many asthma patients, with the medical know-how we have today, there is no reason why hospitalisation should happen unless under extreme circumstances. At times it can be as simple as understanding how best to use your inhaler where the role of the nurse becomes very important in this process,” added Dalia Ibrahim, respiratory marketing manager GSK.

World Asthma Day and the local campaign come in the midst of a program spearheaded by the DHA and supported by GSK to create asthma clinics in Dubai.-TradeArabia News Service