Katy Fawcett on UK asthma death rates
The UK has amongst the highest asthma death rates in Europe, a new report has revealed today.
The most comprehensive ever National Review of Asthma Deaths shows that asthma deaths are on the rise, Katy Fawcett tells us more in her blog.
Did you know a person has a potentially life threatening asthma attack every ten seconds in the UK? And yet according to a report out today the condition is not being taken seriously enough.
The royal college of physicians found that almost half of people who died from asthma weren't being given the right prescriptions. Worryingly, almost all children who died had errors in their treatment. The biggest problem is many doctors are over prescribing blue 'reliever' inhalers and under prescribing brown 'preventer' inhalers.
The UK now has some of the highest asthma death rates in Europe, 1,242 people died in 2012 and the equivalent of a classroom full of children are among those deaths.