“More than 300 million people worldwide suffer from asthma, says expert”

Dr. Ashraf Hatem, Professor of Chest Diseases, revealedKasr El Ainy Medicine Chairman of the Parliament’s Health Committee, that more than 300 million people in the world suffer from asthma, which is a chronic disease that causes asthmatic crises that can lead the patient to intensive care and on respirators.

He added, on the sidelines of the World Asthma Day celebration, that the latest studies conducted on Egypt revealed that there are between 3 to 5 percent who suffer from chest allergy, and children the percentage is higher, reaching about 8 to 10 percent.

He said, that chest allergy or bronchial asthma is the basic treatment is preventive treatment, and quick treatment during the crisis and treatment, the most important is preventive treatment, and depends on the inhaler.

He pointed out that 85% of asthma patients are treated with inhalation, whether powder or spray, through an inhalation spray.

He said that 10% of patients in Egypt suffer from severe chronic bronchial asthma, and they are hospitalized due to crises, and their primary treatment was initially cortisone through pills or injections, and one of its complications was that it raises sugar and pressure and leads to osteoporosis, and cortisone was replaced by biological medicines. Explaining that its side effects are few, but it is expensive, and it is included in private insurance, comprehensive health insurance, or the current health insurance, indicating that there is a committee dedicated to chest diseases to determine the extent of the patient’s need for biological medicines, and they are dispensed on a limited scale according to the patient’s condition, as there is a medicine It was introduced 5 years ago, but there are two new drugs that were recently introduced abroad, but they have not been approved in health insurance in Egypt yet.