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for those folks with kids
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6692423/site/newsweek/
Children With Asthma Often Undertreated
Doctors say advances in asthma management should keep most kids symptom-free, but a new survey shows many young patients aren’t getting the treatment they need
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Jennifer Barrett Ozols
Newsweek
Updated: 7:53 p.m. ET Dec. 11, 2004Dec. 10 - Epiphany Stalling doesn’t like to talk about how asthma sometimes keeps her up at night or keeps her from playing on the school basketball team.
“She plays it down a lot,” says her mother, Karen. Just a couple of days ago, the 11-year-old felt an attack coming on but wanted to stay outside to play with friends. “So she didn’t say anything,” Karen recalls.
By the time Karen called her daughter inside to their fourth-floor apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y., Epiphany could only make it to the third-floor landing before she had to sit down and catch her breath. “She was just huffing and puffing,” says her mom.
Epiphany has a short-acting inhaler she uses at such times. But that hasn’t always been enough to prevent an asthma attack, which can result in emergency-room treatment.
“A lot of times, people think that if they have asthma, they are supposed to be sick,” says Dr. Paul Williams, a pediatrician and former president of the Washington State Society of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. “But one thing I try and impress on patients is that asthma can be controlled; you shouldn’t let asthma control you.”
Pediatricians and asthma specialists say that with new medications, the disease need no longer interfere with school, sports or sleep—or lead to regular emergency-room visits. But many patients like Epiphany don’t appear to have gotten the memo. A new survey released Wednesday by Asthma Action America, a national education campaign supported by GlaxoSmithKline that includes the American Lung Association and more than 20 other organizations, found that many children with asthma were falling far short of the treatment goals established by the National Institutes of Health.
© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.