Asthma: Action needed on needless deaths, says charity
Asthma: Action needed on needless deaths, says charity
There were more than 12,000 UK deaths in the past decade, many of them needless, a charity warns.
Urgent government action is needed to stop preventable asthma deaths, a leading charity has said.
More than 12,000 people in the UK have died from asthma attacks since 2014, according to Asthma and Lung UK.
It said the figures meant "shockingly little" had changed since a major report a decade ago which found two thirds of asthma deaths could have been avoided with better care.
Ministers in England and Wales said they were trying to improve services.
About 5.4 million people in the UK have asthma, a common lung condition which can cause breathing difficulties.
It also said many asthmatics should be given more information to help them to manage their condition and recognise warning signs.
This especially. And here in America too. I had really bad asthma as a kid (now I only need to use my inhaler if I have a bad cold), but I had to learn to recognize those signs myself. And worse, when I could feel an attack coming on and needed to go to the nurse to use my nebulizer, teachers would think I was trying to get out of a test. They didn't even get that stress, like the stress of a test, can trigger an asthma attack.