Photo Credit: Ian Hooton/SPL via Getty Images
What would you do if someone next to you — on the bus, on the subway, in line at the grocery store or at the gym — suddenly had trouble breathing because of asthma?
You would help.
But what if you could help that person with a few clicks of your mouse before he or she lost a single breath?
This Asthma Awareness Month (May) and World Asthma Day (May 6), you can.
How? By taking the following actions to spread the message that asthma — a chronic lung disease that can be disabling or deadly and affects 1 in 12 people in the United States, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHBLI) — can be controlled with proper treatment.
- Thunderclap: Get Asthma Aware
Join the NHLBI’s Asthma Thunderclap by 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time today (May 6) to increase asthma awareness. Using Thunderclap, you can share your message about asthma through your favorite social media channels in a single stroke. - Twitter chat: Coping with Asthma
U.S. News and the NHLBI will co-host a Twitter chat about coping with asthma on May 14, 2:00–3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Join us and follow the chat by using #AsthmaChat.
- Video: Respirar es Vida
Watch Respirar es Vida (“breath of life”) to learn how young Jose’s parents created an “asthma team” — composed of themselves and their son, a doctor and nurse, a community health educator, a teacher and school nurse, and a coach — to help Jose control his asthma. (English captioning is available.) Share this video with your family, friends and colleagues.
All of these efforts are part of the NHLBI’s National Asthma Control Initiative, launched by FHI 360’s Social Marketing and Communication team in 2008. The initiative empowers health care providers and patients to follow the latest science-based asthma care guidelines, offering resources crafted by FHI 360 for an array of audiences.
Read more about FHI 360’s communication and social marketing work on chronic and noncommunicable diseases in the United States.