Asthma

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2005-1-10

VOICE ONE:

I'm Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program
SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about the disease asthma. It
affects as many as one hundred fifty million people around the
world.

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VOICE ONE:

Asthma is a serious lung disease
that causes breathing problems. These problems, called asthma
attacks, can kill. Asthma can affect people of all age groups but
often begins in childhood. It can be controlled but not cured.
Sufferers must deal with the disease every day.

Stavros Kontzias (cun-ZEE-ahs) is an eight-year-old boy living
near Washington, D-C. He developed asthma when he was about two
years old. His parents, Susie and Zack, say the breathing problems
would appear whenever Stavros got sick with a cold or lung
infection.

His father remembers those experiences as very frightening. He
says Stavros coughed a lot. The boy struggled to breathe. His
breathing became very loud and had a strange sound. That kind of
breathing is called wheezing. Mister Kontzias says his son never
turned blue from a lack of oxygen. But, he says it was apparent that
little air was getting into Stavros's lungs.

VOICE TWO:

The Kontziases made several emergency visits to the hospital when
Stavros became sick. Once there, doctors gave the boy drugs called
steroids. Mister Kontzias says the steroids worked very fast to open
his son's air passages. But, he says he began to worry about
long-term effects of high amounts of steroids as the trips to the
hospital increased.

So, his parents took Stavros to a pulmonary pediatric specialist.
That is a doctor who is an expert in diseases that affect children's
lungs. The doctor listened to the boy's lungs. He also used
measuring devices to test the child's airflow limitations. The
combination of the test results and Stavros's medical history showed
he had asthma.

VOICE ONE:

Stavros began a treatment of four medicines a day to control his
asthma. The Kontziases also took other steps to control their son's
asthma. They removed all floor coverings in Stavros's room and most
of the house. They also changed the activities he was involved in.

For example, the boy stopped playing European football, or
soccer. The continuous running required to play the sport severely
decreased his breathing ability. So Stavros began to play baseball
instead. It gave him more time to rest and requires much less
running.

VOICE TWO:

Stavros and his family saw improvement in the boy's health over
the next several years. His trips to the hospital emergency room
grew increasingly rare. Also, Stavros's doctor slowly reduced the
amount of medicine the boy took.

Recently, Zack and Suzie Kontzias reported good news. They say
their son has not taken any steroid medicine since last summer. And
they say he has not had an asthma attack. His parents also noted
that those months included a season of American football, Stavros's
latest interest. The Kontziases now hope the asthma may completely
disappear as their son gets older.

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VOICE ONE:

Doctors do not know the cause of asthma. Yet they have identified
most of its triggers. For example, the common cold can cause an
asthma attack in a person who has the disease. There also are
several air pollutants that can lead to an asthma attack. Pollen is
one such pollutant. Pollen is a fine dust that comes from plants
that produce seeds. However, almost any kind of dust can cause an
asthma attack if enough of it is in the air. This includes common
dust found in houses.

Air pollution from burning fuel also can cause an asthma attack.
Tobacco smoke can do the same. Some kinds of animal hair are a
trigger for asthma. And, even some insects in the home can lead to
asthma attacks.

VOICE TWO:

Several things happen in the lungs when an asthma sufferer has an
attack. Cells in the air passages begin to produce too much of a
thick, sticky substance called mucous. The mucous creates blocked
areas in the air passages. The tissue that lines the air passages
begins to expand at the same time. And, the muscles in the passages
tighten.

All these changes cause the air passages to narrow. This reduces
the amount of air that can flow in and out of the lungs. The
sufferer can not get a good, deep, breath of air. The narrowed
airways also cause coughing and a tight feeling in the chest.

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VOICE ONE:

Health experts say asthma cases are increasing around the world.
The World Health Organization says asthma rates worldwide are
increasing on average by fifty percent every ten years. W.H.O.
officials say asthma cases in western Europe have increased by two
times in ten years. They say the number of asthma sufferers has
increased in the United States by about sixty percent in the past
twenty years.

American experts give an even higher number. The American Academy
of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology says the rise was seventy-five
percent in about the same time period. It also says more than twenty
million Americans report having the disease.

The number of deaths from asthma also has risen in the United
States. The W.H.O. says about five thousand Americans die from
asthma attacks each year. In the early nineteen-eighties, the yearly
death rate from asthma in the United States was about half that.

VOICE TWO:

The World Health Organization says asthma is not just a problem
in industrial countries. It says the disease affects people in
developing nations, too. However, the incidence of the disease
differs greatly from area to area. W.H.O. officials say as many as
twenty million people suffer from the disease in India.

The officials say an estimated fifteen percent of Indian children
suffer from the disease. They also say almost twenty percent of
children in Kenya show signs of asthma. Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama,
Peru and Uruguay also have a high rate of childhood asthma. The
W.H.O. says as many as thirty percent of children in those countries
show signs of asthma.

VOICE ONE:

Asthma kills about one hundred eighty thousand people a year. The
W.H.O. says the disease also has huge economic costs. The costs
linked to asthma are believed to be higher than those of
tuberculosis and AIDS combined. The W.H.O. says the United States
spends six thousand million dollars a year on health care and other
economic costs of asthma. It says Britain spends almost a third of
that on health care for the disease and lost productivity of
workers.The World Health Organization says greater international
action is needed to deal with asthma. It says asthma sufferers,
healthcare providers and the general public must learn more about
the disease and the problems linked to it. The W.H.O. says a
worldwide system should be put into effect to observe and record
asthma rates around the world. And, it says more research is needed
to find the cause of asthma and develop new ways to treat it.

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VOICE TWO:

Medical experts have suspected for some time that there was a
genetic link to asthma. A child has a greater chance of developing
asthma if his or her parent is asthmatic. British and American
scientists say they may have found a gene involved in the disease.

Three groups of researchers took part in the study. One group
worked for Genome Therapeutics, a drug company in Waltham,
Massachusetts. The other scientists were from the drug maker
Schering-Plough and the University of Southampton in Britain.

VOICE ONE:

The gene is called ADAM thirty-three. The scientists identified
it through genetic testing of more than four-hundred families in the
United States and Britain whose members have the disease. The
scientists say the gene alone does not cause asthma. But, they say
its presence appears to increase a person's chances of developing
the disease.

They say the gene may be involved in the main condition of asthma
— the narrowing of airway passages. However, the scientists say it
is too early to say what percentage of asthma sufferers may have an
abnormal gene.

Scientists say the finding could lead to new research about the
causes of asthma and new drugs to treat the disease. It could also
lead to methods to identify people most at risk for asthma and early
treatment to help prevent the development of the disease.

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VOICE TWO:

This Science in the News program was written by Caty Weaver. It
was produced by Jill Moss. Dwayne Collins was our engineer. I'm Bob
Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news
about science in Special English on the Voice of America.