Background
Asthma is a disease involving a type of breathlessness. In the late 1980's, about ten million people in the U.S. suffered from asthma. Asthma related deaths in the U.S. increased forty percent between 1982 and 1995 for unknown reasons. Asthma attacks are caused by a partial blocking of the small bronchial tubes in the lungs. This blocking results from a contraction of the bronchial muscles, swelling of the mucous membranes that line these muscles, and the production of phlegm, thick mucus.
Asthma is a very common disorder, and it is estimated that four to five percent of the population of the United States is affected. Asthma morbidity and mortality are on the rise. According to statistics from the National Institutes of Health, over one hundred million people worldwide have asthma, with the prevalence of asthma increasing among children. This overall increase also affects the pool of patients at risk for sudden death (Evens, 1987).
Asthma occurs at all ages, but predominantly in early life. About one-half of the cases develop before the age of ten, and another third occur before age forty. As asthma is an episodic disease, patients experience acute exacerbations interspersed with symptom-free periods. However, there can be a phase in which the patient experiences some degree of airway obstruction daily. When this happens, lung function becomes more unstable, symptoms are more severe and persistent, the acute response to bronchodilator is larger, and the amount of therapy required controlling the patient's complaints increases.
Asthma causes approximately 10.1 million days of missed school annually in the United States. Asthma could appear in early childhood or later on as an adult. Despite the various drugs available to treat this condition, the number of deaths has increased. Bronchial asthma occurs in not only in the underprivileged but also to the wealthy as well.
