World Asthma Day (WAD) (May 7, 2024) is organized by the Global Initiative for Asthma, (GINA) (www.ginasthma.org), a World Health Organization collaborative organization founded in 1993. WAD is held each May to raise awareness of Asthma worldwide.
In celebration of World Asthma Day 2024, the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) has selected the theme of “Asthma Education Empowers”. GINA emphasizes the need to empower people with asthma with the appropriate education to manage their disease, and to recognize when to seek medical help. Health care professionals are called upon to increase their awareness of the continuing avoidable morbidity and mortality from asthma, and the published evidence on effective management of asthma, so they are equipped to provide reliable information and optimal treatment for their patients.
Asthma is one of the most common chronic non-communicable diseases that affects over 260 million people and is responsible for over 450000 deaths each year worldwide, most of which are preventable.
Key universal issues on which education is required are under- or inaccurate diagnosis, underuse of anti-inflammatory inhaled corticosteroid inhalers, overuse, and over-reliance on short-acting beta2–agonist (SABA) inhalers, and poor recognition of patients requiring specialist assessment and further management. In low-middle-income countries, lack of availability of inhaled medicines and especially inhaled corticosteroid-containing inhalers is a major contributor to the fact that more than 90% of asthma deaths occur in these countries.
Policy makers and pharmaceutical industry are called upon to increase their awareness of the continuing preventable morbidity associated with this common disease in spite of the existence of highly effective controller treatments, and to increase their efforts to ensure that environmentally friendly inhaled medications are made available in all countries, “leaving no-one behind”. See www.ginasthma.org/reports.
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SUBMIT YOUR ACTIVITY Activity Ideas – World Asthma Day
World Asthma Day is held on the first Tuesday in May. Each year GINA chooses a theme and coordinates preparation and distribution of World Asthma Day materials and resources. GINA also maintains the World Asthma Day Internet Headquarters, where materials and resources are posted for downloading and a complete listing of activities around the world is constantly updated.
The first World Asthma Day, in 1998, was celebrated in more than 35 countries in conjunction with the first World Asthma Meeting held in Barcelona, Spain. Participation has increased with each World Asthma Day held since then, and the day has become one of the world’s most important asthma awareness and education events.
We have gathered all of the World Asthma Day activities submitted to GINA, from all over the world. Click the button below to view the slideshow from World Asthma Day 2023.
World Asthma Day 2023 Activities