Asthma
What is asthma?
Asthma is a life-threatening lung disease. In the lungs of a person with asthma, airways become inflamed and fill with mucus until it is difficult or impossible to breathe. There is no cure for asthma, only treatment. For children it is the most common life-long disease, affecting 6.3 million children nationwide. One out of every thirteen children in school has asthma. The number will be growing, since more preschoolers than ever are developing asthma.
Did you know: In Southwestern Pennsylvania there are 300,000 patients with lung disease. Over 45,000 of them are children. 14 million school days were missed due to asthma in the year 2000, and that rate is expected to continue to rise. There are 129,000 cases of asthma in the Pittsburgh metro area.
