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World Asthma Day is an annual event organized by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) to improve asthma awareness and care around the world. World Asthma Day takes place on the first Tuesday of May. The inaugural World Asthma Day was held in 1998.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 300 million people around the world suffer from asthma. The number of people with asthma increases by 1.5-2 times every 10 years.

Asthma is a chronic disease of the air passages (or bronchial) that lead to and from the lungs that makes breathing difficult. Usually there is inflammation, which results in a temporary narrowing of the passages that carry oxygen to the lungs.

During the past 30 years, asthma was the most common among adults, and one of the leading chronic diseases among children. Armenia isn’t an exception either. 12.6% of children and 7% of the adults suffer from chronic asthma in Armenia. Among 8000 people asthmas is observed in critical form.

According to press service of the Ministry of Health of Armenia, 11 years before the WHO, in 1987 on May 5 the Republican Speleotherapy Asthma Centre was established. More than 7 thousand people have been treated at the centre, including 2 thousand children.

Armenian Organization for Respiratory Medicine was established in 2013 to unite the experts, scientists dealing with treatment of respiratory problems. Every year on the World Asthma Day, the Republican Speleotherapy and Natural Therapy centres hold conferences to increase awareness about bronchial asthma.

This year’s topic of the conference is “The connection between rhinitis and bronchial asthma, causes and effects”. Armenian and foreign doctors and scientists have prepared reports for the conference.
Bronchial asthma is more of a public problem, than a medical one. Therefore, the knowledge on the pathogenesis of asthma is essential for public prevention of the disease. Identifying the children at risk and further implementation of speleotherapy will enable to further decrease the number of those suffering from asthma in Armenia.

It should be noted that modern medicine enables to prevent the development of the disease. Asthma is a disease with low rate of deaths, yet it often leads to disabilities. According to research, speleotherapy reduces the unproductive days of those suffering with asthma 11 times.