Early diagnosis and proper treatment to curb asthma

Early diagnosis and proper treatment to curb asthma

By Maria Endah Hulupi

JAKARTA (JP): Ellen suffered from coughing and breathing
difficulties when she was 8 years old. She was taken to a doctor
who prescribed cough medications.

But they did not work and her suffering continued until her
parents took her to another doctor, who diagnosed her as
suffering from asthma. Thanks to proper early treatment, she
could stop her asthma treatment when she became a teenage.

Ellen was lucky because there are many asthma sufferers who do
not receive early treatment and end up with a progressive asthma
condition.

"This condition can be controlled but practitioners' failure
to make early detection and the public's failure to notice the
condition and take the proper asthma medications as ordered by
doctors, have contributed to making it rampant," a pulmonologist
with state-run Persahabatan general hospital in East Jakarta,
Faisal Yunus, told a media briefing recently during The Third
International Meeting on Respiratory Care in Indonesia.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways,
accompanied by breathing difficulties, often with wheezing,
coughing or gasping and sufferers also feel a sense of
constriction in the chest. "Doctors often falsely diagnose the
symptoms as tuberculosis or bronchitis," Faisal added.

A pulmonologist with Gatot Soebroto Army hospital in Central
Jakarta, Pradjna Paramita, said that the seminar was aimed at
campaigning for respiratory care and to enrich general
practitioners with adequate knowledge to enable early detection
of the condition.

"Early detection can be made by taking a complete medical
history during a preliminary consultation. If the symptoms lead
to asthma, a doctor can check the function of the patient's lungs
using spirometry," Paramita added.

Faisal also explained that the condition was still one of the
world's major health problems and was classified as the 10th most
common illness in Indonesia.

The prevalence of asthma is increasing.

In the UK, the number of asthmatics in 1994 was three fold its
1964's figure. There is no official data on asthmatics in
Indonesia but officials said data from community health centers
showed that 7 percent of the population suffers from asthma.

The condition affects people from different age groups but is
more prevalent in people aged between 14 and 58.

"Thirty percent of adults and 16 percent of children remain at
home during an asthma attack," he added.

He said that children who were inadequately breast-fed and
people with a history of asthma in the family were prone to the
condition.

Food

But children can also contract asthma through the consumption
of high-protein foods, like eggs and liver, or foods containing
colorings or monosodium glutamate. "With the right treatment, 80
percent of asthmatic children can be cured, while the remaining
may have to live with it for the rest of their lives," he said.

Adults can also contract the disease due to stress, emotional
turmoil, pollution, fatigue or by taking certain drugs, like
aspirin.

Asthma can be divided into intermittent, moderate and
persistent conditions based on its frequency, occurrence in the
evenings and its seriousness, and on how far it affects a
person's routine and the person's lungs.

"People with intermittent asthma are only disturbed when a
rare attack occur, while others with persistent asthma find it
hard to perform their routine normally," he explained.

Faisal said that taking medication, to relieve asthma attacks
whenever needed and to control moderate and chronic asthma, is
important to treating the condition and preventing it from
getting out of control or becoming life threatening.

"Failure to take medication can aggravate asthma, even making
it difficult to control," he said.

He pointed out that a corticosteroid inhaler was the most
effective way to treat asthma and its effect can be felt three
minutes to five minutes after application. The effects of oral or
injected medication can be felt after 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

Asthmatics are advised to avoid foods or conditions that can
aggravate their condition and they are also told perform regular
exercise, like swimming, walking, jogging, bicycling and
aerobics.

"Whatever the triggers are, with proper treatment, asthma can
be controlled and sufferers can be active just like people
without asthma," Faisal said, adding that asthmatics have to
inform their physicians if they are allergic to certain drugs.

Paramita warned of the use of traditional medicine, while
often promising, are yet to be medically proved affective..

"Aside from that, such medications never include important
information on ingredients, warnings and contraindications. This
can lead to other serious health problems," Faisal cautioned.