The Lung Health and Medicine Revolution in Respiratory Century

Over the past century we have become adept at suppressing the symptoms of respiratory diseases but we have made little progress in curing them. Respiratory diseases are responsible for over 650,000 deaths annually in the EU and the burden on health systems is increasing as the population ages. A revolutionary collaborative approach to research funding is providing new insights into the origins of chronic respiratory diseases. All stakeholders in respiratory medicine are pooling their knowledge and resources to focus on risk factors to find cures, formulate new vaccines and develop cutting-edge technologies to tackle the burden of chronic respiratory diseases.

The best 2013 Sleep Story Video

The American Sleep Medicine Foundation selected an effects-heavy YouTube video about the benefits of sleep as the grand-prize winner of the first-ever ASMF Sleep Story Video Contest. The video was created by Jasper Lown, a senior at Wheaton-Warrenville South High School, located near Chicago. His two-minute video uses creative visuals to provide simple tips to improve sleep habits. His sponsoring teacher was Tim Brylka.

Disparities in respiratory health

To address the global phenomenon of disparities in respiratory health, the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society have released an official policy statement in which each pledges its commitment to reducing health disparities between the lowest and highest socioeconomic groups by continuing or initiating work with leaders from governments, academia, and other organizations to promote scientific inquiry and training, disseminate medical information and best practices, and monitor and advocate for public respiratory health.

Klaus Rabe, MD, writing committee member and a past president of ERS, continued: "The effects of health disparities in Europe on respiratory disease are very pronounced. Individuals in lower social groups are not only more likely to have respiratory diseases, but, compared with other disorders, social inequality is associated with a larger proportion of deaths from these diseases."

The American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society pledge to frame their actions to reduce respiratory health disparities. The vision of the ATS and ERS is that all persons attain better and sustained respiratory health. They call on all their members and other societies to join in this commitment.

85 years from fantastic discovery of the first antibiotic

"When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionise all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacteria killer," Fleming would later say, "But I suppose that was exactly what I did."

The most important medical event of the 20th century – eighty-five years ago on this day. The world’s first antibiotic was indeed nothing less than revolutionary; penicillin has saved more lives than any other single drug, conquering some of humankind’s most ancient scourges – pneumonia, syphilis, gonorrhoea, diphtheria, gangrene, scarlet fever, battle wounds and childbirth infections that had for so long killed millions indiscriminately.

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis World Week 2013

This week is Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis World Week 2013!!!

Join IPF Global campaign on www.ipfworld.org!!!

MISSION:

• Creating a national and international network of people working to support patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.
• Developing a map of the Centers of Excellence in the diagnosis and treatment of IPF.
• Raising awareness, inform, train, guide stakeholders towards this social emergency.
• Offering support and tools to patients and their families to cope better with this disease.
• Promoting a culture of “donation” in collaboration with the organ donors associations.
• Promoting social awareness and sensitivity towards the dangers of smoking in collaboration with the Anti-Smoking Centers.
• Stimulating awareness on the voluntary sector, with particular reference to the needs of the rare disease patients.
• Promoting the knowledge on the new frontiers of biology, medicine, social sciences, psychology, analysis, law, economics, communication, etc. regarding IPF.

"BREATH OF HOPE" 

Share and spread the video of IPF World Week 2013. It was shot in Croatia during a meeting of the associations active in the field of suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and in Italy, Modena. People who participated in the campaign are patients, family members, physicians, medical students, all convinced that sharing is the shortest way to get effective goals. 
Together we can fight IPF!!!

European Respiratory Society Congress 2013: What we will remember

The 23rd annual Congress of European Respiratory Society (ERS) held in Barcelona impressed by its’ scientific quality, originality and multidisciplinary collaborations.  More than 4,000 abstracts have provided a platform for discussion. Respiratory Decade would like to recall the most interesting themes and therefore the most attended sessions of this year.

Launch of European Lung White Book: Respiratory Health and Disease in Europe

 A major new publication for the Europe - European Lung White Book is a comprehensive publication that provides information on burden, cost and risk factor for a range of respiratory diseases (asthma, COPD, lung cancer, pneumonia, bronchitis, influenza, tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, pulmonary fibrosis, sleep apnoea, pulmonary vascular disease). A substantial part of the book form the epidemiological data from more than 50 countries, means of prevention and treatment for a range of diseases. 

ERS President, Professor Francesco Blasi, said: “The European Lung White Book calls on countries with high rates of respiratory diseases, such as tuberculosis, but it also provides key recommendations to help policy makers address this issue.” The European Lung White Book is a common call on EU Member States to make air quality an integral part of their transport policies and national plans. 

Virtual monitoring could aid adherence to TB medication

The directly observed treatment (DOT), recommended by the World Health Organization is often time consuming for a patient and is resource intensive for outreach projects. The virtually observed treatment (VOT) method instead requires people to send a short video of them taking medication to their health provider using a mobile phone. After an initial visit to the clinic, this can be completed remotely. The effectiveness of the VOT technique was piloted by the researches from the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. Nine people needing DOT were enrolled in the programme. Overall, the researchers observed 86% of scheduled doses. It was concluded that this was a feasible method of monitoring TB treatment programme in people able to use VOT. The outcomes of this pilot study suggest that telemedicine can help overcome the difficulty in direct monitoring of unengaged or hard-to-reach patients.

Electronic nose technology – new method for lung cancer diagnostics

Current tests for lung cancer include blood and urine tests, followed by CT scans and chest radiographs. The new method suggests people at a high risk of lung cancer could receive an initial breath test to quickly assess their symptoms. Previous research has shown that animals are capable of detecting diseases based on breath test. 

Scientists have been trying to replicate this in ‘electronic nose’ technology, which works by detecting different profiles of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breath samples. The innovative part of the study suggests it is possible to differentiate lung cancer from different lung conditions and healthy people. Still the main problem with electronic nose technology is that it is individual, so each piece of equipment must be trained to distinguish between odours. Obviously it causes a problem of standardising the practice between different centres, which is supposed to be solved in the next step of the research. Meanwhile, the advantages of exhaled breath analysis by electronic nose are hard to deny: it is cheap, easy to do, non-invasive, sufficiently accurate and possible to do in a large number of patients at risk. 

In this way, ERS Annual Congress revealed the importance of innovative diagnostics and of the patient input into communicating science to the public.  

 Report from our Special Press Representative Mila Corlateanu

48 years from first health warnings on cigarette packages

27 July 1965: President Johnson signed a bill requiring cigarette makers to print health warnings on all cigarette packages about the effects of smoking. 

The landmark Surgeon General's report from 1965 on smoking and health stimulated a greatly increased concern about tobacco on the part of the American public and government policymakers and led to a broad-based anti-smoking campaign. It also motivated the tobacco industry to intensify its efforts to question the scientific evidence linking smoking and disease. The report was also responsible for the passage of the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965, which, among other things, mandated Surgeon General's health warnings on cigarette packages.