DOHA: Nearly 5,000 patients with asthma visit the Chest Clinic of the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) for treatment and follow up appointments every year, a press release said.
Asthma affects the lungs and is one of the most common long-term diseases in children. Adults can also have asthma, which causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing at night or early in the morning.
HMC yesterday joined the international community to observe World Asthma Day, organized by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) to raise awareness about asthma and improve asthma care throughout the world.
World Asthma Day takes place each year on the first Tuesday in May. The main aim of the annual event is to improve asthma awareness and care around the world. The theme for the year will continue to be ‘You Can Control Your Asthma.’ GINA will also continue to use the sub-theme, “It’s Time to Control Asthma.”
“It can be hard to tell if someone has asthma, especially in children under the age of five. However, checking how well the lungs work and checking for allergies can help in diagnosing or ruling out asthma,” said Dr Hisham Abdulsattar, Chief of Pulmonary/Allergy Division at HMC’s Department of Medicine.
He explained that if someone has asthma, they have it all the time, but they will have asthma attacks only when something irritates their lungs.
“An asthma attack may include coughing, chest tightness, wheezing, and trouble breathing. Asthma attacks happen in the body’s airways, which are the paths that carry air to the lungs. As the air moves through the lungs, the airways become smaller, like the branches of a tree are smaller than the tree trunk. During an asthma attack, the sides of the airways in the lungs swell and the airways shrink. Less air gets in and out of the lungs, and mucous that the body makes clogs up the airways.”
Dr Abdulsattar said that an asthma attack can happen when a patient is exposed to asthma triggers such as tobacco smoke, dust mites, outdoor air pollution, cockroach allergens, pets, mold, and smoke from burning wood or grass. The Peninsula
