
With the increasing cases of Asthma among children in developing countries, experts have called for the retraining of doctors and health workers in general so as to effectively manage the symptoms and attacks associated with the non-communicable disease.
Dr. Mpairwe Harriet, a senior scientist with MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit and the principal investigator of the research entitled; Studies On Asthma Among Children that was conducted in 55 different primary and secondary schools within Entebbe Municipality and Katabi Town Council between 2014 -2017 and between the age group of 5-17 years, revealed that there is need to have an increased campaign to educate the doctors and health workers because there are new Asthma treatment guidelines and yet the old doctors might be using the old treatment guidelines.
Dr. Mpairwe who was speaking at World Asthma Day Celebrations at Kisubi Hospital on Thursday revealed that the research study indicated that 73 percent of children interviewed disclosed that they have never used inhalers because they have never been prescribed by doctors. Dr. Mpairwe attributed the worrying statistics to Doctors and health workers who still prescribe Asthma Salbutamol tablets instead of prescribing in inhalation form.

The research among others also revealed that 27 percent have used a Salbutamol inhaler in the last one year for relief during emergency situations while 30 percent revealed that their parents have given them herbal medicine during Asthmatic attacks.
The research also revealed that only 6 percent of Asthma patients have been treated following the global Asthma Initiative treatment guidelines that are the globally recommended treatment guidelines for Asthma treatment which only recommend the use of inhalation treatment.
“The next phase of our research we shall be investigating why the risk of developing Asthma increases from rural to urban areas because unlike Children in the towns and cities who stand double and triple risks of developing Asthma, children in the rural areas are less susceptible of developing Asthma. What matters is where the child was born or spends their first five years of life. Majority of the children born in the cities and towns have attributed their Asthma to cold Air, exercises, chest infections, dust, fumes and Pollution”, revealed Dr. Mpairwe.
Meanwhile, Dr. Sendijja Rogers, a pediatrician at Kisubi Hospital revealed that close to 300m people globally are suffering from Asthma and 300,000 die annually because of the disease. Dr. Sendijja attributed the increasing cases of asthma to lack of awareness and lack of requisite skills and information by the doctors to diagnose asthma patients.
“At Kisubi Hospital, as per our records we only have 65 asthmatic patients whom we treat, follow-up and review regularly and on average a month, we receive 10-15 asthmatic children who come for treatment but the figures are still low and we believe that there are many children out there who are suffering from Asthma but due to lack of awareness and lack of knowledge on the health facilities that treat Asthma, many cases aren’t reported and aren’t diagnosed”, revealed Dr. Sendijja.

Asthma is a disease of the lungs which manifests itself through recurrent or persistent coughing which isn’t associated with high temperatures (fever), chest pain, difficulty in breathing and whizzing.
20 years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) gazetted May 1, to create awareness about the global problem of Asthma so that the disease can be cured to allow people live better quality lives.