Tagged: world asthma day

  • May 6, 2014

    Making a difference on World Asthma Day

    Written by
    Sanda Pecina, eputy Director, Social Marketing and Communication, FHI 360

    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.

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  • May 7, 2013

    It’s time to control asthma

    Written by
    Kate Fink, Communication Officer, FHI 360

    It may seem simple: breathe in, breathe out. But for the 25 million Americans who have asthma, inhaling and exhaling can be like breathing through a straw. Asthma is a common, chronic disease causing inflammation of the airways. In the United States, asthma is responsible for nine deaths each day and costs the health care system $56 billion every year. Asthma is more common and severe among African American, Puerto Rican and Native American children.

    There is no cure for asthma. But with proper treatment, asthma can be controlled. Each May, people across the globe commemorate World Asthma Day and Asthma Awareness Month to spread the message that it’s time to control asthma.

    FHI 360 recently worked with the U.S. National Institutes of Health to implement the National Asthma Control Initiative, a program that empowers health care providers and patients to follow the latest science-based asthma care guidelines.

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