How prevalent is Asthma?
There are about ten million bronchial Asthma patients in the United States alone, or about 4% of its population. Mathematical extrapolation might suggest that we should have about 1.4 million of asthmatics in the Philippines, but this may not be epidemiologically accurate, since there are many etiologies and other factors involved. Unfortunately, we do not firm statistical data on this. Are there more asthmatics today? The statistics in the United States show that from 1980 to 1987, the prevalence of asthma increased by 29%, and from 1970 to 1987, in 17 years, the rate nearly tripled. Death rate from 1980 to 1987 increased 31% from the previous years. Obviously, our more polluted environment does not help. What causes Asthma? A variety of inhaled allergens could lead to an asthmatic attack. Some persons react to some of these, and others to other allergens, like viral infection, exercise and even unknown irritants. Somehow, in these persons, their bronchial tree (breathing pipe) is hyp
