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.