Opening of the photo exhibition „STOP TB! Tuberculosis - A worldwide menace“ 9th of November 2012

Today we are happy to present you special report from our friend Cordula from Take That TB organization about the opening of photo exhibition dedicated to Tuberculosis! We are highlighting today tuberculosis as one of the dangerous communicable disease, which can be prevented and treated with success!

Tuberculosis is a forgotten illness in Europe. In many other parts of the world this illness is still rife  and shows in connection with AIDS a menace for the world health.  
On the 9th of November 2012 the photo exhibition „STOP TB! Tuberculosis - A worldwide menace“  was opened. It was carried out in cooperation with the stop TB Partnership. 

The exhibition shows impressing photo reports from  photojournalists like Pulitzer prizewinner David Rochkind. They all have documented the situation of tuberculosis patients worldwide for several years. After an introductory talk of the epidemiologist Dr. Stefanie Castell of the Helmholtz centre Braunschweig that inspired the audience by its descriptiveness, possibilities of the fight against TB were discussed with a high-carat occupied panel discussion. During this panel discussion Dr. Peter Reff of the KfW developing bank said, ’It is a scandal that all 20 seconds a person must die because of a remediable illness like tuberculosis. Prof. Dr. Klaus Fleischer of the German leprosy and tuberculosis relief (DAHW) underlined that tuberculosis is above all a poverty illness. Mrs. Diekwisch of the pharmaceutical campaign BUKO and Mrs. Heykes-Uden of the tuberculosis advice centre of the region Hannover agreed that poverty fight, the improvement of the living conditions and access to education are most important components in the fight against tuberculosis.

The appearance of Cordula whose tuberculosis illness was not recognised in Germany more than 15 months by several doctors was very moving. The courageous young woman reported that many doctors did not recognise her illness for a long time and she also talked about unawareness about tuberculosis. Now the young woman fights together with the German leprosy and tuberculosis relief (DAHW) and with her own patient organization for a better understanding and knowledge of the illness in Germany. „ Such cases show us that we must fight for more awareness of tuberculosis in Germany, and our exhibition contributes an important part to it“, both curators Harro Schmidt and 
Dr. Matthias Stehr added.

The exhibition runs from November 10th to December 16th 2012 in the arts centre “Faust” in Hannover. 

Opening hours:
Thursdays + Friday 4pm - 8pm
Saturday + Sunday 2pm - 6pm

WORLD COPD DAY 2012: Global effort to fight COPD!!!

Today is World COPD Day 2012! One more step for increasing of awareness at the global level is done! Many people made today many things for promotion of COPD around the world! Many people performed today Spirometry for the first time! 

But what unmet need in COPD we are having?

Somebody will say this is early detection, somebody will say its treatment, somebody will say prevention is the most important thing! But we are sure that we cannot realize nothing without AWARENESS for COPD! Awareness this is what we need! At our opinion awareness can be raised by respiratory professionals, with limitation of the influence of pharmaceutical industry! Unfortunately its very easy to talk about awareness, but its so hard to create it! More than 550 COPD SUPPORTERS joined us on WORLD COPD DAY on facebook!! With your help we are becoming the most attended World COPD Day 2012 worldwide!!  

Just do it together! 

Spread the WORD!!!

It is just 4 letters C-O-P-D!!!!

World COPD Day is a global RESPIRATORY effort to expand understanding of COPD and advocate for better care for RESPIRATORY patients. Organized by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD), the Day is marked by activities implemented by health care professionals and patient groups throughout the world!!!

Use COPD GOLD Ribbon!!!

Use COPD GOLD Ribbon this month for helping us to spread the word and increase awareness for COPD!!! We are continuing COPD awareness Day and also month! 

We started this week with this:
Something missing? ;) Its place for our COPD GOLD Ribbon! Spreading the word!

And finished with this:

We are finding missing yesterday COPD GOLD Ribbon! Thanks to Ulrich Kuemmel!

NOVEMBER is COPD AWARENESS MONTH

We are happy to present you post from Kandy Blankartz!! Thank you Kandy!

I am writing this to remind you that November is COPD AWARENESS Month, the day of November for COPD AWARENESS is NOV 14, 2012. We hope to persuade you to add simple spirometry screening for COPD to all your community relations education events during November and on World COPD DAY.
There are many COPD groups a person can join to get help on the internet and on Face Book. They are all there willing to help you. There is EFFORTs, COPD Support, USCOPD Coalition, COPD Friends for Friends, COPD Support. These also are of help, Gold website www.goldcopd.com, NLHEP http://nlhep.org/, www.emphysema.net. These have life styles tips, current trial information, awareness campaign activities, books and magazines resources.
As you know COPD is now the 3rd leading cause of death in America. Usually COPD is not usually diagnosed until people have begun to show obvious symptoms. By then they may have already may have lost 50% of their lung capacity. Spirometry is very important for testing your lungs. Inexpensive spirometry are available at our local hospital.
The theme this year for COPD AWARENESS is "Its Not To Late"!! 

Kandy Blankartz
COPD ADVOCATE
Mobridge, SD

Respiratory Decade is launching COPD Electronic Marathon 2012

We got many requests from you to continue our  COPD Electronic Marathon, which was launched and hosted by Respiratory Decade in 2010!

Today we are happy to announce the start of new initiative for 2012: COPD Electronic Marathon!

The aim of COPD Electronic Marathon is to let the general public find more useful information about COPD via social media. The Marathon will last one month, till the 14th of November 2012, which is the World COPD Day.

We will post educational materials, videos, scientific articles, patient stories: all about COPD - both for patients and doctors.
We encourage all of you to take part and to be active, you can post on our page or share our posts. Every post connected with the theme is welcomed and precious for us.

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK:

 

Breaking news: Tobacco industry attacks

Today, we want to support our Respiratory friends and colleagues from 3 key well-known anti-tobacco organizations from Brussels! This night offices of European Respiratory Society (ERS), Smoke Free Partnership (SFP) and European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) were broken into and confidential data relating to the revision of the EU Tobacco Products Directive and other issues were stolen.

All organisations have offices in the same building on 49-51 Rue des Treves, Brussels (on the 2nd and 5th floors). When Police arrived, it was soon apparent that only 3 offices (from a building with over 20) had been broken into - with SFP, ERS and EPHA being the only organisations ransacked and with multiple items missing. 

We are supporting all anti-tobacco initiatives! We want to say to all  our friends that we need to continue this struggle with tobacco and tobacco industry! These cruel actions confirm that it is business, but this business becomes illegal not only by their dirty methods of promotion in low income countries, but also by their struggle with anti-smoking organizations and leading European policy makers!

We want to call everybody to continue this fight with Smoking Industry because at the moment its represents real risk for the health of mankind and for the life of the next generations!

Be strong! Smoke Free Society is a very real!    

The 2012 European Lung Foundation Award

The 2012 European Lung Foundation Award was presented to the 30 Lung Champions of the World Spirometry Day campaign, but the winner was famous Norwegian Olympic rowing champion, Olaf Tufte.

Chair of the European Lung Foundation, Monica Fletcher, said: “Olaf is a true champion and does not let his asthma limit or impact on his dedication to his goals. As the face of the World Spirometry Day campaign, we wanted to recognise Olaf’s hard work at achieving his ambitions and inspiring the next generation of athletes. Exercise is such an important part of managing asthma and we hope others with the condition will be motivated by Olaf’s attitude to reaching the peak of his sport.”

Olaf accepted the award at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Vienna, on behalf of the 30 Lung Champions. He was also joined by 11-year old Alex Supple; a dedicated rugby player and Lung Champion from the UK, who also lives with asthma.

Tufte European Lung Foundation Award from Donald O. Costello on Vimeo.