Allergy/Asthma

In 2015, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease contributed to 3.2 million deaths worldwide and asthma contributed to 0.4 million deaths. These statistics demonstrate the significant impact of these respiratory diseases and a need for better policies to improve access to and quality of existing interventions for prevention and treatment, according to findings published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

From 1980 to 1987, the death rate from asthma in the United States rose from 1.3 per 100,000 population to 1.7, according to the CDC. Although asthma mortality rates had been steadily declining in the U.S. and Canada from 1965 through 1978, a relatively abrupt 31% increase provided cause for alarm.

Teva Pharmaceuticals announced that the FDA approved QVAR RediHaler inhalation aerosol for the prophylactic treatment of asthma in patients aged older than 4 years, according to a company press release.

Based on findings from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that outlined critical issues related to pediatric food allergies, the AAP has emphasized additional allergy education for pediatricians to improve the diagnosis of these patients and reduce risk of anaphylaxis.

The effects of inhaled corticosteroid use can be effectively measured through the use of lung sound analysis — with an index of the chest wall at 700 Hz and sound intensity at 700 Hz — according to a study published in Respirology.

Less than 50% of children who experience anaphylaxis receive epinephrine before treatment in an ED or urgent care center, despite the medication being the first line of defense against the condition, according to a study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

The use of statewide quality improvement learning collaboratives can improve asthma care, with the amount of physician rated well-controlled asthma increasing from 59% to 74%, according to a study published in Pediatrics.

The last few years have seen a growing force of infectious disease challenges that together pose an unprecedented range of threats to health here in the United States and in countries around the world where Americans travel and conduct business. While outbreaks of Ebola, Zika, SARS and MERS have spread from their places of origin with devastating impacts, rising rates of resistance to antimicrobial drugs threaten the gains of modern medicine at home and globally. New and re-emerging diseases with pandemic potential continue to surface, and diseases that include tuberculosis, once considered all but conquered, have evolved faster than the medicines to control them, to pose new dangers.

Adults with a history of childhood asthma had an elevated left ventricular mass index, especially in those with prehypertension or hypertension, according to a study published in JACC: Heart Failure.

For children diagnosed with allergies to food, insect venom, drugs, or other allergenic substances, epinephrine auto-injectors can be lifesaving. Epinephrine auto-injectors have made the lay media headlines recently, because their significant price increases have sparked concerns among many families and health care professionals alike. Although the AAP and several professional allergy organizations have published treatment guidelines on anaphylaxis and the role of epinephrine, it is crucial for clinicians to extend that education to patients and their parents, including the appropriate use of epinephrine auto-injector devices currently on the market.