Martin Venderwood: Canadian parents of children with Asthma may not be taking their children's disease seriously. According to our recent survey pediatric asthma in Canada many parents believe their child's asthma is well managed, but that may not be the case.
Liza Whittaker: Parents should take all levels of asthma seriously, even what's considered to be mild may not really be mild according to most standards, and mild doesn't necessarily stay mild. Children catch respiratory infections, or get exposed to triggers that can cause more serious symptoms sending children to emergency rooms and doctor visits.
Martin Venderwood: According to pediatric asthma in Canada, a recent survey conducted by Leger Marketing, 74% of parents describe their child's asthma as mild, yet 17% admit that their child still deals with an asthma attack, at least once a month. The survey also show that more than 40% have made unscheduled trips to the doctor's office in the last year, and 26% ended up in the hospital emergency room. Even though, the Canadian Asthma Guidelines recommend the daily use of an inhaled preventative treatment, only 27% of children use their medication daily.
Christine Hampson: Our vision at the Asthma Society of Canada is to empower every child and adult in Canada with asthma to live an active and symptom-free life. The results of the survey are quite alarming, because it indicates that there are a number of children in Canada whose asthma is not under control. It also suggests that there could be a compliance issue, and the parents don't understand the need to manage their child's asthma everyday.
So parents should look for the warning signs, and should talk to their healthcare professional about managing their child's asthma on a daily basis.
Dr. Susan Waserman: I am a busy working mom with three kids but it's important to make asthma priority for your family. It's important to have medication that works for you, that's recommended by your doctor, that's safe and convenient.
Martin Venderwood: Health Canada recently approved Alvesco, a new generation of inhaled corticosteroid for the preventative management of steroid responsive bronchial asthma in children 6 years of age and older. It is also approved in adolescents and adults.
Liza Whittaker: As an allergist who sees pediatric Asthma I am extremely excited about the availability of Alvesco for treatment of pediatric patients. It's been shown in studies to be extremely safe. It has no affect on growth. Studies have been reassuring that children can tolerate it very well. The other thing that will be good to have is the once daily inhaled drug which Alvesco is, what that means is that children will be less likely to forget dosages overall compliance will be better and hence Asthma control will be better as well.
Martin Venderwood: Although survey results show that some parents have concerns about long-term side effects of therapy including an impact on growth, one of the key benefits of Alvesco is that it has shown no negative effect on growth rates, even at high dosages.
Asthma is a disease with potentially serious risks that affects about 13% of Canadian children. So it's critical that families be informed. The Asthma Society of Canada has updated its two main websites for children and adolescents. Please visit www.asthmakids.ca or www.airsquare.ca for more information. Martin Venderwood reporting.
Tom: My name is Tom. I'm from Everett. I was diagnosed with type-II diabetes in 1998. I have heard that the HA1c is a measurement of the average of blood sugar over a period of time. If this is true, why?
Linda Delahanty: Hi Tom! Yes, the hemoglobin A1c is a measure of the average blood sugar over a three-month period, and what this is, is that blood sugar attaches to the blood cells in your system, and rides around with the blood cells in your system and the higher your blood sugar, the more sugar that is attached to the red blood cells. And since the red blood cells live for three months, may turn over every three months, then every three months, you have a new average from the hemoglobin A1c test to reflect your average blood sugar for that three month period.
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