The Brussels Declaration: The Need For Change In Asthma Management

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 27 Nov 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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The prevalence of asthma has increased dramatically over the last 20 years, and the annual cost of illness is now estimated at almost 18 billion euros across Europe. Childhood asthma in particular is escalating: up to 20% of European children have asthma and it has become the most common reason that children are hospitalised.

Although current medications can help treat asthma, surveys show that only about 5% of European adults and children with asthma actually gain control of the disease according to Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) criteria. In addition, there is no definitive test to diagnose asthma, levels of care vary across Europe, and researchers have yet to unravel the complex genetic and environmental causes.

The Brussels Declaration on Asthma, sponsored by The Asthma, Allergy and Inflammation Research (AAIR) Charity, calls for urgent action from policymakers, regulators, physicians and patients, to recognize that asthma is a serious public health problem that deserves to become a political priority.

Clinical and regulatory changes are needed to ensure that asthma diagnosis is accurate, that physicians recognise the systemic inflammatory nature of the disease, and that patients throughout Europe receive optimal asthma management.

In this context, the Declaration emphasises that the current EMEA guidance note on asthma from 2002 needs to be urgently updated in order to reflect the latest research and, in particular, to recognize the importance of patient-centred outcome measures, the concurrence of multiple associated allergic manifestations in any one patient with asthma, as it occurs in other complex diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, and the importance of improving the way asthma treatments are assessed in children.

Last but not least, the Declaration calls on patients to be empowered to take an active role in their own management.

According to Stephen Holgate (University of Southampton, UK), the author of this ERJ Perspective article, who helped lead the Declaration, "asthma is a public health problem affecting all age groups that demands strong action at multiple levels, including attention to the other diseases that coexist with asthma, diet, air quality, exercise and housing, as well as better and more appropriate assessment and use of anti-asthma drugs, taking account of patients' concerns about side effects."

The Brussels Declaration, available online at http://www.summitforchange.eu, calls for action on all of these points, and urges stakeholders to set targets so that improvements in outcomes can be monitored and assessed.

Action is essential not just from governments, but also from physicians, patient groups and patients themselves, in order to ensure a better outcome for asthma sufferers across Europe.

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The Brussels Declaration: the need for change in asthma management

About the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ)

The European Respiratory Journal is the peer-reviewed scientific publication of the European Respiratory Society (more than 8,000 specialists in lung diseases and respiratory medicine in Europe, the United States and Australia).

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