CURRENT AFFAIRS: IMPORTANT DAYS
World Asthma Day – Observed on First Tuesday of May
- World Asthma Day (WAD) is organized by the Global Initiative for Asthma, (GINA) (ginasthma.org), a World Health Organization collaborative organization founded in 1993.
- This year’s World Asthma Day theme is “Uncovering Asthma Misconceptions”.
- WAD is held each May to raise awareness of Asthma worldwide.
- WHO recognizes that asthma is of major public health importance.
- According to WHO, it was estimated that more than 339 million people had Asthma globally and there were 417,918 deaths due to asthma at the global level in 2016.
- Although asthma cannot be cured, it is possible to manage asthma to reduce and prevent asthma attacks, also called episodes or exacerbations.
- The theme provides a call to action to address common widely held myths and misconceptions concerning asthma that prevent persons with asthma from enjoying optimal benefit from the major advances in the management of this condition.
- Common misconceptions surrounding asthma include:
- Asthma is a childhood disease; individuals will grow out of it as they age.
- Asthma is infectious.
- Asthma sufferers should not exercise.
- Asthma is only controllable with high dose steroids.
