Newsletters

Newsletter August 2014

Dear Global Asthma Network colleagues and friends,
Welcome to this winter/summer newsletter. With all the conflict and tragedies we hear about, I hope that you and your families are safe and well.

The Global Asthma Network (GAN) has continued to grow and we now have expressions of interest from 276 centres from 119 countries http://www.globalasthmanetwork.org/about/centres.php This link shows you who is involved. The centres are also listed on the following pages. This is a growth of 47 centres and 18 countries since our last newsletter in December.

GAN has conducted 2 surveys of principal investigators which have achieved ≥85% response rate. These surveys have been about asthma guidelines and national strategies, and more recently about asthma essential medicines. Thank you for your participation. We will publish a summary of the results of these surveys in the Global Asthma Report 2014 (see next paragraph) and as scientific papers.

We are completing the preparation of the Global Asthma Report 2014 www.globalasthmareport.org, which follows on from the Global Asthma Report 2011. This will be launched at the 45th Union World Conference on Lung Health which is being held in Barcelona on 28th October to 1 November 2014. Prior to this conference, the GAN Steering Group will be holding their annual meeting on 26th and 27th October.

Our participation at the 2014 American Thoracic Society (ATS) conference in the Global Community section of the Exhibit space went very well. Philippa and I recruited more centres and met many new people, which was a pleasure.

I attended the UN NCD Review meeting in New York in the first week of July, and was invited to speak about asthma at the FIRS/NCD side meeting. There are no standardised surveillance studies on asthma being undertaken by any one or any organisation, apart from GAN. This is why our work is so important.

However we are needing a major funder so that our work can continue. If you have any ideas, please be in contact.

Once again, thank you for your involvement in GAN.

With all best wishes from the GAN Steering Group.

Innes
Professor Innes Asher ONZM
Chair of GAN

Global Asthma Network Centres August 2014

106 Countries / Territories that we would like to encourage to participate in GAN. We would be very interested to have a contact for these.

Surveys and publications

We are very grateful to all GAN investigators for completing the two surveys that we have conducted recently. We have had a very good response rate for both of these. For the survey on management guidelines and asthma strategies, the response rate was 92%. For the medications survey the response rate was 85%.

We plan to publish this data in due course and will be sending you a draft manuscript for your input prior to publication as contributors will be co-authors http://www.globalasthmanetwork.org/publications/policy.php. Thank you again for your responses to these surveys. The results for these surveys will also be included in the Global Asthma Report 2014.

Global Asthma Report 2014

Global Asthma Network Website Report

The Global Asthma Network website is intended to be the main channel for the dissemination of information. It includes information of use to collaborators in the Global Asthma Network, such as upcoming conferences and symposiums, asthma management guidelines and the latest asthma related news.

The website will be continuously updated in the coming year to include tools and information to support our Asthma Surveillance research.

Website Statistics

Global Asthma Report Downloads

The precursor activity leading to the Global Asthma Network was the Global Asthma Report 2011. After three years it is still being accessed regularly around the world and demand has increased 6 fold. The 2014 update is currently in preparation.

Social Media

The Global Asthma Network is on Twitter. All Global Asthma Network tweets are included as an extension of the news section. News items are tweeted, as well as pertinent Asthma related information.

Once the Surveillance study is underway we will include a facebook page as another way for investigators to keep in contact with and support each other.

A Wikipedia page is also in the process of being drafted. It will follow the format of the existing ISAAC Wikipedia page.

GAN Steering Group member speaks at NCD Child Conference

Steering Group member Professor Luis García-Marcos spoke at the 2014 NCD Child Conference held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on 20-21 March. This important conference provided an opportunity to establish and strengthen regional partnerships - with a special focus on the Caribbean - to ensure the needs of children, adolescents and youth are a priority focus within the context of NCD action and the post 2015 agenda.

Read the NCD Child Conference Report - "Doing What Needs To Be Done" at http://www.healthycaribbean.org/newsletters/august-2014/hcc-150814.html

GAN photographs from the ATS meeting San Diego May 2014

Innes Asher and Philippa Ellwood manned the Global Asthma Network booth in the Global Community of the Exhibitors area at the ATS. Here are a few photos to share.

Professor Innes Asher was invited as a plenary speaker at the ATS conference. The title of her presentation was Asthma Disparities: A Global Perspective.

GAN at the UN NCD Review

New York, 10 July 2014 - Secretary-General's (Ban Ki-Moon) message to high level meeting on Progress achieved in the Prevention and Control of Non Communicable Diseases [delivered by Ms. Susana Malcorra, Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary-General]

I am pleased to send greetings to this important gathering. The global epidemic of non-communicable diseases is a major and growing challenge to development. Each year, in developing countries alone, strokes, heart attacks, cancer, diabetes or asthma kill more than 12 million people between the ages of 30 and 70. It is possible to prevent most of these deaths. We need a set of simple, effective and affordable solutions for all Member States that can be tailored to each country’s needs. The draft outcome document before you helps chart the way forward.

Three years ago we agreed that it is time to act. We asked governments to protect their citizens from NCD risk factors, provide responsive health systems and track the trends of this epidemic. We also called on civil society and the private sector to help us implement new policies, so the scale of the problem would not prevent us from achieving the Millennium Development Goals. As a result, more governments are now providing institutional, legal, financial and service arrangements to prevent and control NCDs.

Last year I established the United Nations Interagency Task Force on Non-Communicable Diseases, with the World Health Organisation in the lead. It is assisting countries to implement the WHO Global NCD Action Plan, which aims for a 25 per cent reduction in premature deaths from NCDs by 2025. Improved global monitoring and improved co-ordination will provide the foundation for advocacy, policy development and global action. And this high-level meeting can help frame the concrete actions that countries should take between now and the third High-Level Meeting on NCDs in 2018.

Success will depend on finding new ways to strengthen the ability of countries to adopt bolder measures. The World Health Organisation has a special role to play. It has a proven ability to influence policy and build capacity, and a long-standing role as a trusted partner working across sectors. The WHO will continue to lead. But the rapidly growing demand for technical assistance means the United Nations system as a whole must incorporate NCDs as a priority and develop innovative partnerships. We need strong leadership and action from other sectors and non-State actors. We need to improve access to affordable medicines for NCDs. And we must find new ways of encouraging the private sector to stop marketing unhealthy foods to children and produce more foods that are low in fat, sugar and salt. The actions you have identified in the draft outcome document can help remove the barriers to good health that blight the lives of too many people. Let us leave this meeting energized, inspired and committed to the course we have embarked on.

I wish you a productive meeting.

Innes Asher was invited to present at the FIRS NCD side meeting of the UN NCD Review. (Click here for programme)