ASTHMA

ASTHMA At the end of the last year, you may have heard the sad news of the Thai star “Off - Apichat Paupimon”, who died from asthma – a condition he had since he was young. The comedian “Dee-dokmadun”, is now also suffering from asthma in the ICU.

Asthma is the illness coming from the allergy. Two third of the asthma patients suffer from the allergy. Generally, the patients always have a cough and a stuffy nose in the morning and in the night. Today, the number of asthmatic patients has increased by 10 percent. In Thailand, we estimate that the number of asthmatic sufferers is about 3 million and around 1,000 asthma patients die each year. Unfortunately, 70 percent of these patients die because they come to the hospital too late.

Generally, asthma is brought on by an allergy to dust, pollen, or even seafood. The allergy has different presenting symptoms, depending on the health of that person. Some people who have severe symptoms will die from this illness. The cause of asthma is contraction of the bronchus and much sputum production, which causes the difficulty in breathing and wheezing. The patient gets progressively tired especially when he/she exhales. However, when the brochospasm becomes worse, there is little noise when the patient breathes. This is why the person may have a fatal asthma attack because he/she cannot breathe and does not get medical treatment in time.

Fatal Asthma Attack, is from symptoms severe enough that may cause the patient’s death. The reason why the patient suffers from a fatal asthma attack is that they do not use the medicines regularly or wrongly use the medication. The other reason is that the bronchus (airway) of that patient becomes hyper-sensitive.

As asthma is a respiratory illness, most of the patients may suffer from colds, sinusitis, bronchial infections and have a high risk of intercurrent diseases.

Asthma is a chronic disease which needs ongoing medical treatment and exercises. These two things can increase immunity against the illness. The patients have to strictly follow the advice from the doctor and must not forget to take their medicines and inhalers. The aerosol inhalers are divided into two types : one is used to prevent the symptoms, while the other is used when the patient is suffers from an asthma attack.

Bangkok Hospital Pattaya