ASTHMA ART CONTEST 2011

On World Asthma Day 2011 (3 May), people with asthma and severe asthma are being encouraged to get creative for a unique art contest which will explore what it is like to live with the condition. 

The contest is open to people of all ages and will help bridge the gap between doctors’ understanding of the condition and a person’s experience of it.

Asthma is a major health problem around the world and is a one of the world’s major non-communicable diseases. Not all types of asthma are the same and current treatments adopt a uniform approach, meaning they don’t work well for everybody. The art contest is part of a European-wide project called U-BIOPRED - Unbiased BIOmarkers in PREDiction of respiratory disease outcomes. U-BIOPRED is a research project funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), to understand more about severe asthma that involves scientists from universities, research institutes, the pharmaceutical industry and small companies.

U-BIOPRED will help scientists understand more about severe asthma. The researchers will look at how severe asthma differs from one person to another in the hope of uncovering more effective treatments in the future. 

                                            U-BIOPRED video

The competition is open to any person with asthma and all types of art work from dance, music and poetry, to paintings and photography are encouraged. The top three winning entries will be displayed on the U-BIOPRED website. 

The winner will be invited to the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam (24-25 September) to receive their award and see their winning entry presented at the opening ceremony. Professor Peter Sterk, project lead, said:  “The U-BIOPRED project aims to understand more about asthma and severe asthma. One important way we can do this is to hear from patients directly. This contest enables patients to express, through art, what the condition is like and how it impacts upon their life.”

Professor Peter STERK

University of Amsterdam

“The winning entry will be the piece which best conveys what it is like to have asthma and we want to hear from anyone with the condition, whether you are a budding or artist, or a complete beginner.”

The closing date for all entries is 1 June 2011. You can enter the art contest by uploading a digital copy of your artwork to the website. For full terms and conditions, visit: www.ubiopred.european-lung-foundation.org/artcontest.

THE SOUTH AMERICAN CONGRESS OF ALLERGY AND ASTHMA 2011

The South American Congress of Allergy and Asthma held in the city of Cordoba, Argentina at 28-30 April 2011, was a resounding scientific and organizational success  attended by many colleagues throughout the region. It was organized by the Southern Cone Chapter of the Latin American Society of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and INTERASMA (International Association of Asthmology). Had the invaluable support of the World Allergy Organization, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the Latin American Society of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, Argentina Federation of ENT Societies, the Argentine Society of Pediatrics, the Allergy Societies of Southern Europe, and many allergy and immunology societies in Latin America.

The Scientific Program was divided into 3 main tracks: Allergies in adults, Allergies in Pediatrics and Allergy in ENT.
           It started with 3 pre-conference practical courses very useful in practice . One of allergy practice for the office and the emergency room, the second on diagnostic methods in allergy, and the last on flexible and rigid endoscopy of the upper airways.

The Congress held two international workshops, one on immunotherapy, celebrating 100 years of specific immunotherapy with allergens, and another on the initiative of WHO, ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma).
The program addressed the key issues of allergy and respiratory medicine, with particular attention to the incorporation of allergic and respiratory diseases to the group of non-communicable chronic diseases of WHO.

Prof. Sandra N. González Díaz (Mexico)

We have the presence of 42 invited speakers from Europe, USA and Latin America, who, along with other Latin American and Argentine experts collaborated to deliver presentations of a high scientific level.

Participated as representatives of the World Allergy Organization, Drs. Nelson Rosário Filho (Brazil), Mario Sanchez Borges (Venezuela) and Juan C. Ivancevich (Argentina). Through them, it was announced the World Allergy Congress to be held in Cancun, Mexico next December and the promotion of the Allergy White Book of the WAO.
On behalf of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the President, Dr. Dennis Ledford,  gave interesting lectures.

Prof. G. Walter Canonica (Italy) - Simposio Latinoamericano de Inmunoterapia

The Organizing Committee gave awards to Dres. Mario Sánchez Borges (Venezuela), Dirceu Solé (Brazil), Gustavo Rodriguez (Uruguay), G. Walter Canonica (Italy), Gianni Passalacqua (Italy), Alejandro Tepper (Argentina).

Prof. Gianni Passalacqua (Italy) - Simposio Latinoamericano de Inmunoterapia

We acknowledge the great support of all sponsoring societies, and especially the World Allergy Organization.

Professor,

Juan Carlos Ivancevich, MD, PhD

Asthma Educational materials

We are continuing to promote Respiratory education for patients. Today topic is Asthma, because on 3 May 2011 we will have great Respiratory event - World Asthma Day 2011!
You can read Asthma Control Brochure from American Center for Disease Control and Prevention!

Asthma UK

VIDEO PROJECT ON THE EVE OF WORLD ASTHMA DAY 2011

First Tuesday of May is not a usual day – it’s World Asthma Day (WAD). So, why not express yourself if this theme touches your health?

As for me, it seems that we need more information for general public, for patients, for health care specialists and policy makers. It is important to make information available for specialists working in developing countries, as namely there we feel lack of medical knowledge and also absence of the educational programs for asthma patients.

Somebody can disagree but I can bring a simple example of that insufficiency:

I was trying to find a professional video for promotion of World Asthma Day 2011 in internet and the surprising result was that online resources are poor. So I would like to suggest to change this strange situation and to create a common video. It will be our collective work called “First Group World Asthma Day 2011 Video”. You can share the material you think will be useful – visual material, as pictures, photos, schemes, charts, everything related to this Non-communicable disease. 

                

                    

Since early civilization asthma has been recognized and has been well described by physicians over the centuries, with particular understanding of mechanisms. Whereas 30-40 years ago patients suffering from acute asthma attacks were admitted to the emergency department several times a day, today this has been reduced to a couple of patients a year. Treatment with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in the first instance, followed by the use of combination therapy with ICS and long-acting b-agonists later on has greatly improved the long-term prognosis of asthma patients. Meanwhile, there are still a number of patients that are not well controlled even with a high-dose combination therapy. Near fatal asthma attacks still occur and asthma mortality, although low, is still present.

I would like to mention The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) which is truly great initiative and every year produces updates for global asthma guidelines. This year I attended an Italian Congress: 2011 International guidelines on rhinitis, asthma and COPD Global Initiatives ARIA, GINA and GOLD, after that in April 2011 I joined GINA as a member of Assembly for my home country, Republic of Moldova. GINA guidelines is the most credible and sure source for management of asthma patients for respiratory specialists all over the world.

For online promotion of WAD 2011 we created the event of Respiratory Decade on facebook ; also a group on facebook and on twitter were created. There you can follow everyday updated information, pictures, patients and world asthma experts’ opinions, links.

Another useful sort is European Respiratory Society that prepared and published European Respiratory Monograph on Difficult-to-Treat Asthma edited by professors K.F. Chung and S.E. Bel, which includes 22 chapters written by world leaders in Asthma. 

World Asthma Day 2011 is a wonderful possibility to show the world that asthma patients need attention. It is obvious that we cannot limit and demonstrate our attention and global interest only while that day. What we need – its everyday Respiratory awareness, which we are trying to promote here. “World Asthma Day Video” may be the first step. 

Mila CORLATEANU
Alexandru CORLATEANU, MD, PhD