Asthma Foundation Questions Scare Tactics

3rd May 2005

Asthma Foundation Questions Scare Tactics and High Costs of Treatment

Trumped up controversy about asthma relievers is obscuring the fact that up to half of all New Zealanders with asthma do not have their condition under control, according to the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation.

Speaking on World Asthma Day, Foundation Executive Director, Jane Patterson said: `While the Foundation supports having as wide a choice of asthma medications as practicable, here we have one of the world’s biggest drug companies announcing that it is to charge New Zealand patients privately twice what it charged the government for a medicine long past its patent expiry, while thousands of children and adults suffer with uncontrolled asthma.’

`Uncontrolled asthma is an under-recognised health problem that has significant impact on patients and their families. There is no cure, as yet, for asthma but it is a highly manageable condition if patients and healthcare professionals work together to control symptoms. The first step is to recognise the signs of uncontrolled asthma, which include needing to use a rescue inhaler more than three or four times a week.’

To help control asthma symptoms and severity, the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation advises everyone with asthma and every parent of a child with asthma to talk with their healthcare professional and follow an asthma management plan.

ENDS

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