Bringing the focus back to day-to-day respiratory care

not afford to pay for the cost of getting a new prescription. A further 16 per cent of parents/ guardians reported having had to forgo other essential items in order to purchase their children’s asthma medications.

Welcome to the latest edition of Update Respiratory Medicine.

Asthma awareness week took place earlier this month and saw the publication of a new survey by the Asthma Society of Ireland, which focused on the experience of children with asthma – revealing some concerning findings.

One-in-10 children in Ireland have asthma and one-in-five will develop it at some point in their childhood. There are a number of factors that are key to making Ireland an ‘asthma-safe country’ for children, according to the Society, which include timely access to appropriate healthcare, affordable asthma medication, and support for parents and children to learn more about the illness and to build self-management skills.

However, the Society’s survey of Irish parents or guardians about their children’s asthma found that 73 per cent of surveyed parents have experienced anxiety around managing their child’s asthma and 28 per cent indicated they experienced this anxiety ‘always or often’.

The survey also found that 20 per cent of children with asthma worry always or often about having an attack, and the same number worry always or often about having to take their medication in public.

Worryingly, just over a quarter (26 per cent) of parents struggle with the cost of their child’s asthma medications – 5 per cent said they have forgone buying their child’s asthma medications as they could not afford the medication or device, while 5 per cent had forgone buying their child’s medication because they could

Rationing or forgoing asthma medication can lead to a serious exacerbation of symptoms, which can escalate to a dangerous asthma attack. The Asthma Society has been calling for the inclusion of asthma medications on the HSE’s Long-Term Illness Scheme since the organisation’s inception in 1973, but successive governments have refused to update the scheme.

The Society’s survey also highlighted the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on asthma in children – 19 per cent of respondents reported avoiding or delaying going to hospital for their child’s asthma due to fears of them contracting Covid-19, while almost 59 per cent of respondents reported being unsure whether their child’s symptoms were caused by asthma or Covid-19. As a result, almost 16 per cent reported that this uncertainty resulted in a delay in appropriate treatment for the child.

Commenting on the findings, Sarah O’Connor, CEO of the Asthma Society of Ireland, said: “When we looked at the survey results, they really do speak volumes about Ireland’s status as an ‘asthma-safe’ country for children. In a year when the paediatric Model of Care for asthma is being developed by the HSE, we believe it is imperative to note that Ireland is not currently an ‘asthma-safe country’ for children.”

To coincide with asthma awareness week, this edition of Update has a special focus on asthma, with articles on asthma in women, asthma in children, and an overview of the HSE’s new end-to-end Model of Care for Adult Asthma.

There is also an update from the Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, an overview of an innovative singing exercise programme for pulmonary fibrosis, as well as expert clinical articles on the latest 2022 COPD GOLD guidelines and the latest approaches to managing allergic rhinitis, as well as an update on the roll-out of the HSE’s pulmonary rehabilitation teams for COPD, and an interview with one of the clinicians behind important new Covid-19related Irish research. Speaking of Covid-19, this edition of Update features an expert overview of the role of pulmonary rehabilitation in patients suffering from long Covid, which is an issue that will unfortunately be with us for the foreseeable future and clearly needs more resources to support these patients and their clinicians.

In addition, there is a brief look at continuing international and national efforts to tackle TB, which remains one of the world’s biggest infectious causes of mortality and morbidity and is on the rise again following the impact of the pandemic.

Also returning to our shores this past winter after a brief disappearance was influenza, with this edition containing a summary of the latest data on cases to-date and vaccination uptake in older adults.

Finally, there is a meeting report on Cystic Fibrosis Ireland’s 2022 Annual Conference, which heard about the very positive impacts the latest treatments for this disease are having.

So all-in-all, this is a packed issue that should hopefully prove interesting and useful to all our readers. Thank you to all our expert contributors for taking the time to share their knowledge and advice for the betterment of patient care.

We always welcome new contributors and suggestions for future content, as well as any feedback on our content to-date. Please contact me at priscilla@mindo.ie if you wish to give any feedback or contribute an article. ■

28 Pulmonary

32 SingStrong: Singing for pulmonary fibrosis

Editor Priscilla Lynch priscilla@mindo.ie

Sub-editor Emer Keogh emer@greenx.ie

Creative Director Laura Kenny laura@greenx.ie

34 Irish Lung Fibrosis Association update

36 Cystic Fibrosis Ireland 2022 Annual Conference report 39 Influenza in Ireland –the

Battling TB –

Advertisements Graham Cooke graham@greenx.ie Administration Daiva Maciunaite daiva@greenx.ie

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