Asthma Cases to Be Tracked

Health officials from across the mid-Atlantic region are developing a regional system for tracking the growing asthma epidemic, which has seen cases more than double nationally in the last 20 years.

Asthma experts, policy makers and information technology specialists gathered last month at Harbor Hospital Center in a meeting sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Asthma, a respiratory ailment, is the seventh-leading chronic condition in the nation, with more than 17 million sufferers, according to the American Lung Assn.

It also is the leading chronic illness in children in the United States--affecting about 5.5 million a year--and the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic illness, the federal government says.

The number of Americans with asthma increased from 6.7 million in 1980 to 17.3 million 1998, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths due to asthma, meanwhile, have more than tripled from 84 in 1977 to 280 in 1995, according to the EPA.

Organizers hope the shared data will give a better sense of why asthma is spreading.

“The big question is what is causing the epidemic in asthma,” said Ruth Quinn, the Baltimore Health Department’s Asthma Program Director. “There are so many theories [for the epidemic], but nobody knows for sure.”

Among the prevailing theories are economic status and race. The poor are more likely to get improper health care, improper information, and be exposed to environmental triggers such as bad air quality and living conditions, Paxman said.