The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Chennai doctor for Amsterdam meeting on asthma

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 29, 2006
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Chennai doctor for Amsterdam meeting on asthma

Staff Reporter

``The involvement of Governments is vital in the fight against the disease''

CHENNAI : A respiratory physician from Chennai will be part of a panel of global asthma experts who will meet at Amsterdam next month to chart out strategies to disseminate guidelines on asthma care across countries.

The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) has convened a meeting of its executive committee on January 12 and 13 to formulate an action-plan to broadbase the benchmark guidelines on asthma treatment finalised by GINA in 2006. Raj B. Singh, managing trustee of the Chest Foundation of India and member of GINA's executive committee, will be the Indian connection to the event.

"The involvement of the Governments is paramount in the fight against asthma and we'll discuss ways to step up State participation in control and awareness," said Dr. Singh. In fact, an important goal for GINA is to motivate governments to initiate national programmes for asthma that are on a par with those for, say, tuberculosis, he added.

The global body, which has over the last 15 years evolved into a voice on asthma issues, condensed the Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention from voluminous data on asthma management and research findings published in established journals. Though intended for care-givers, ranging from GPs and specialists to nurses, the GINA document is as useful for the researcher as it is for the layman.

According to Dr. Singh, GINA has categorised countries into zones and envisaged regional expert groups to oversee implementation of asthma guidelines in those zones. For instance, the Mesoamerican Group supervises Central America and the Mediterranean Group the North Africa-West Asia belt.

Dr. Singh working towards establishing a South Asia Group , says that mere global prescription of inhalation therapy as the cornerstone of asthma care may not work as well in some regions as in others. The roadblocks could stem from factors ranging from economic and literacy issues to acceptance and priorities in existing public health programmes.

The constitution of such groups that better understand the socio-economic dynamics and tailor interventions accordingly could be the key to GINA's aims of reducing asthma prevalence.

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