World Asthma Day is celebrated on the first Tuesday in May. This year, in 2023, it is celebrated on May 2, 2023, i.e., tomorrow. It is a global healthcare event organised annually by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) to increase awareness about asthma and fight against it for children and adults. GINA was founded in 1993. Then this was started in 1998, when the very first World Asthma Day took place globally. There are over 35 countries that participate every year in this initiative.
Asthma is basically a disease that affects your lungs and narrows your airway passage. One of the most common noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) that affects and is seen in both adults and children globally is known as asthma. It causes a response of breathlessness, coughing, wheezing, chest tightening, anxiety, chest pressure, throat irritation, rapid breathing, exercise, etc.
There is a theme allotted every year to World Asthma Day by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA). Last year, on May 3, 2022, the theme was ‘Closing Gaps in Asthma Care’. This year, on May 2, 2023, the following theme will be “All Care for All,” which upholds the growth of accessibility and availability of high-quality medical care to decrease the number of deaths and hospitalisations caused by asthma in low and medium-income countries due to limited access to asthma care, as stated by GINA and Pace Hospital Report.
The main goal of this year’s theme is to motivate all the rich countries with resources to implement comprehensive asthma management programmes, educate about asthma and therapy control, organise asthma screening clinics, conduct asthma walks, invite celebrities and politicians for support and encouragement, etc.
When it comes to statistics, asthma is the most common and has higher numbers than other diseases. According to the WHO, 26.2 crore people suffer from asthma, with a mortality rate of 4.55 lakh globally in 2019. In 2022, the number increased to 45.3 crore people, with a mortality rate of 6.09 lakh globally.
As per the Global Burden of Disease Report (GBDR) 2019, India has the highest growing burden of asthma in the world in terms of deaths and disability-adjusted life years, and over 3.4 crore people in India have asthma, despite accounting for only 13% of the world’s asthma population and 42% of global asthma mortality. In terms of the 2023 data, 34.3 million Indians are asthmatics, which makes them 13% of the world population out of 262 million cases, according to the Indian Express.
According to the above data, it is clearly seen that a lot of people suffer from asthma every day. The treatment for the same is not affordable in a lot of countries for different people. Over 300 million people are diagnosed with asthma every year, and just because diagnosis and treatment are not afforded to a huge number of people, either they are not diagnosed at all or ultimately they die.
Awareness is crucial and important for early treatment and diagnosis, which will reduce the death rate and increase the improvement rate. As you can see, the numbers are increasing massively every year. There needs to be widespread awareness and cooperation globally to stop the number of patients increasing. For the very same reason, World Asthma Day is needed and important.
Keep your country, city, town, and environment clean. Stop polluting and start planting trees. Try avoiding smoke from cigarettes, candles, incense, and fireworks. Do not skip your vaccinations. Try spreading awareness about asthma as much as you can through social media, donations, blogs, articles, etc. Do not give up, because everything in the world has a cure.
