Asthma cases increasing

Respiratory diseases have become a major killer in Kyrgyzstan. In 2002, some 25 percent of adults and teenagers and almost 45 percent of children were suffering from debilitating diseases of the lungs. Chronic bronchitis, tuberculosis and asthma are three of the most prevalent. While the prevalence of the first two has been widely documented, less is known about asthma. "About 200 million people around the world suffer from bronchial asthma. Asthma is characterized as periodically repeating attacks of dyspnoea [difficulty in breathing] and asphyxia [suffocation] due to spasmodic contraction of bronchi," Nurilya Davletalieva, the coordinator of the Kyrgyz-Finnish Programme on Lung Health (KFPLH), told IRIN in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. According to the National Health Information Centre (NHIC), some 6,160 patients, of whom more than 600 were children under the age of 14, and almost 200 were teenagers, were registered as having asthma in Kyrgyzstan in 2003. In 2002, that figure stood at 6,000, including 600 children. In 2001, the number of registered patients was a little less, some 5,800, including some 700 children, Asya Sultanova, KFPLH coordinator, told IRIN in Bishkek. A recent survey by the European Respiratory Society, a Swiss-based respiratory health group, revealed that deaths in the Eurasian region from asthma, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer were the highest in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Asthma sufferers tend to experience suffocating panic attacks when they are not able to breath even a mouthful of air. Although thousands of people suffer from asthma in Kyrgyzstan, physicians believe that many more people live with the disease without knowing about it and therefore they do not undergo any treatment. "Since their early childhood, many people got used to ignoring indispositions, have grown up with asthma and ultimately developed a high tolerance to bronchial spasms. They have got used to their illness, and they live not knowing what a deep and full breath is," one doctor said. While asthmatics in Kyrgyzstan have some privileges, for example throat sprayers are given to them free of charge, their quality is far from acceptable, Kanyn Moldozhieva, a doctor at the Karabalta regional hospital, told IRIN. "Free medications, unfortunately, are of poor quality, good medications are very expensive - from US $16 to $21. Not every patient can afford them. This is probably the reason why the disease aggravates. On average, an asthmatic needs about $35 per month for good treatment when the disease becomes acute," she said. An average monthly salary in Kyrgyzstan is no more than $30. The increase in asthma cases is linked to a deterioration in economic and social conditions, observers say. An allergy specialist from the Institute of Obstetrics and Paediatrics in Bishkek told IRIN that genetic problems, unfavourable environmental conditions, poor nutrition, medication and family issues were the main causes of the problem. The Centre for Family Medicine (CFM) is one of the institutions dealing with asthmatics in Kyrgyzstan. Family doctors often do not have the expertise to deal with asthma. "My family doctor is a gynaecologist, and it is difficult for me to understand how she can really help me if asthma is not within her expertise," Nina Vasilyevna, an asthmatic in Bishkek, told IRIN.