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News
Latest Lung Health Paper published in The Lancet
Jamilah Meghji with other authors including some GAN Steering Group members have published a new paper on Lung Health in LMICs.
Meghji J, Mortimer K, Agusti A, Allwood BW, Asher I, Bateman ED, Bissell K, Bolton CE, Bush A, Celli B, Chiang C-Y, Cruz AA, Dinh-Xuan A-T, El Sony A, Fong KM, Fujiwara PI, Gaga M, Garcia-Marcos L, Halpin DMG, Hurst JR, Jayasooriya S, Kumar A, Lopez-Varela MV, Masekela R, Mbatchou Ngahane BH, Montes de Oca M, Pearce N, Reddel HK, Salvi S, Singh SJ, Varghese C, Vogelmeier CF, Walker P, Zar HJ, Marks GB. Improving lung health in low-income and middle-income countries: from challenges to solutions. The Lancet. 2021; in press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00458-X
First GAN Surveillance paper published
The first paper from the GAN Phase I surveillance has now been published. The paper describes the response rates and geological coverage of the surveillance.
P Ellwood , E Ellwood, C Rutter, V Perez-Fernandez, E Morales, L García-Marcos, N Pearce, MI Asher, D Strachan and the GAN Phase I Study Group. Global Asthma Network Phase I Surveillance: Geographical Coverage and Response Rates. J. Clin. Med. 2020, 9(11), 3688; doi:10.3390/jcm9113688.
Global Asthma Management Guidelines
The Global Asthma Network has updated known Asthma Management Guidelines used around the world, through its most recent survey conducted in 2019/20. Previous Asthma Guidelines Surveys were conducted in 2011 and 2014, to ascertain the coverage of Asthma Management Guidelines throughout the world. The guidelines that were identified in these surveys are now available for download on our Management Guidelines page.
The Inaugural UN International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies
The 7th of September marked the inaugural UN International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, a day to call upon governments, corporations, civil society and individuals to take action to reduce air pollution to protect human health.
The theme of the first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies is "Clean Air for All" and it invites us all to consider how we can change our everyday lives to reduce the amount of air pollution we produce. To see what health workers and advocates are doing around the world to reduce air pollution within the World Organization of Family Doctors(WONCA) air health TtT program: Click Here
Also, coupled with the Global week of action on NCDs(7-13th), in collaboration with the Ministry of Heath in Cameroon within the WONCA Air Health TtT program, training with clinics and health centers has been launched on the need to advise their patients related to mitigation actions to reduce effects of air pollution on their health.
World Asthma Day 2020 - Asthma and COVID-19
On this World Asthma Day everyone and everything we do is affected by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Although this pandemic is a threat to us all, this threat is mitigated by global cooperation. The early and ongoing leadership by the World Health Organization has been a very important contributor. Actions within nations have been variable, and there are many examples of excellent leadership with unexpectedly good outcomes. The timing and extent of national actions has been a critical factor in controlling the disease.
Union statement on World Health Organization funding
Professor Guy Marks, president of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and Global Asthma Steering Group member, has been quoted in the AFP urging USA President Donald Trump to reverse his "reckless decision". He said withdrawing funding would have consequences far beyond COVID-19 that could prove "catastrophic for WHO's other disease control programmes around the world". read more
Call to make preventive drugs more accessible for childhood diseases in LMICs
Hollywood film and television actress Claire Forlani, ambassador for The Union, has made a clarion call for local interventions using simple tools for active screening and diagnosis to end the epidemic of TB, pnuemonia and asthma among children in LMIC's. read more
COVID-19, asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases
Latest COVID-19 Information
The World Health Organization’s Global Alliance Against Chronic Respiratory Diseases has created this information site https://gard-breathefreely.org/covid19/ which is kept up to date.
What People With Asthma Need to Know
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America has created a comprehensive page of coronavirus information for asthma patients which can be found here
GINA COVID-19 FAQs
The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) has created a page of frequently asked questions regarding asthma management and COVID-19 which can be found here.
GAN Visit to Jaipur 21-24 October 2019
Asthma Bhawan http://asthmabhawan.com/
We were privileged to visit the Asthma Bhawan – the Best Asthma Hospital in India and is located in Jaipur. Under the able leadership of Dr.Virendra Singh “Specialist of Allergy and Asthma”. Asthma Bhawan is providing world-class asthma treatment and care in Jaipur to respiratory patients. Asthma Bhawan was founded in 2007 by Indian Asthma Care Society. Their integrated method to patient care delivers state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment services and opportunities to try new medications and therapies through clinical trials. They aim to eliminate asthma agony from the lives of people.
Rajasthan Hospital https://rajasthanhospital.in/
Patient education seminar
Innes and Philippa participated in a patient education seminar led by Dr Virendra Singh at the new Rajasthan Hospital. Patients were able to ask questions and have them answered.
In photo below: (left to right): Dr Sheenu Singh, Dr Virendra Singh, Innes Asher, Dr Nishtha Singh, Philippa Ellwood
General practitioners meeting
Innes Asher also spoke at doctors meeting on “Unveiling Global Asthma in children: ISAAC and GAN”. Other speakers were Dr Virendra Singh and Dr Sheenu Singh. The meeting was well-attended, with more than 100 doctors. A copy of Innes’s slides can be found here slides
GAN at The Union’s World Conference on Lung Health
Hyderabad 28 Oct-1 November 2019
The World Conference on Lung Health was attended by GAN Steering Group members Innes Asher, Karen Bissell, Asma El Sony, Chiang Chen-Yuan, Guy Marks and Kevin Mortimer.
They made the following contributions to the programme:
Innes Asher: Lecture “Calling time on disability and deaths in children”
See live streamed video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpZ-ltlfvjI
Conference news https://hyderabad.worldlunghealth.org/2019/11/a-breathless-child-session-highlights-urgent-need-for-equal-access-to-healthcare-for-children-with-asthma-and-pneumonia/?utm_source=The+Union+Marketing&utm_campaign=f5f119931f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_hyderabad_reg_open_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e2dbdf856e-f5f119931f-248909989
Karen Bissell
Co-Chair: Asthma Management working group
Asma El Sony:
Chair: Fighting to breathe: living with asthma, COPD and chronic respiratory diseases, and how to end the silence
Speaker: Asthma in African Adults: the Sudan perspective
Speaker: Be He@lthy, Be Mobile WHO initiative for CRDs: experiences and challenges – the way forward
Chiang Chen-Yuan
Speaker: Association between exposure to tobacco smoke and tuberculosis
Speaker: Improving asthma care: the opportunities offered by combined corticosteroid/rapid onset bronchodilator inhalers used as required
Guy Marks President
Speaker : Drivers of the major causes of lung disease around the world
Kevin Mortimer Director of Lung Health
Chair: Plenary Deadly Air
Chair: Asthma: an emerging threat to health across the life course
Speaker: Global state of COPD and asthma: the need for a holistic approach
Global Asthma Reports making an impact
Global Asthma Reports are very popular. Between them the Global Asthma Reports have had a total of 182,097 downloads to date! Since first published, the downloads have been as follows:
- The Global Asthma Report 2011 33,900
- The Global Asthma Report 2014 93,229
- The Global Asthma Report 2018 54,968