New guidelines for childhood asthma recommend inhaled corticosteroids

New guidelines aimed at dealing with asthma have been released by government health experts in the United States.

The guidelines issued by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health suggest unique methods for treating children from age 5 to 11.

The goal of new government guidelines is breathing easier without limiting activities.

Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, director of NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute says patients should accept nothing less.

The panel of experts believe the most effective long-term treatment to control asthma in all age groups is the use of drugs known as inhaled corticosteroids.

The new guidelines represent the first comprehensive update in a decade of recommendations to treat and diagnose asthma and focus particularly on the growing problem of childhood asthma.

The recommendations offer new advice on drugs and controlling environmental factors that can trigger symptoms, and suggest that children age 5 to 11 should be treated in much the same way as adults.

They say a person who only avoids an attack by giving up exercise, or who wake up at night coughing and wheezes while running, has not controlled their asthma.

They stress the importance of adjusting therapy until the asthma is under good control.

The guidelines now divide treatment into three age groups which receive different treatment for asthma: birth to 4 years, 5 to 11 and 12 and older.

The establishment of the middle group came about following evidence on new drugs for these children and also indications that they may respond differently to asthma medications than adults.

The newer drugs help control the immune over-reaction which occurs in severe allergic asthma; drugs such as omalizumab (Xolair), made by Genentech and Novartis, is a biotech drug that blocks the immune system compound immunoglobulin E, which is overproduced during an allergic asthma attack.

Omalizumab is injected and approved only for people over the age of 12 with severe asthma.

The guidelines say other drugs should be added only as needed and should be discontinued as soon as possible.

Dr. William Busse, chairman of the University of Wisconsin Department of Medicine who headed the expert panel says that asthma control can be achieved in nearly every patient with asthma.

Dr. Busse says inhaled corticosteroids are still the best long-term control treatment for asthma patients of all ages because evidence shows they are generally safe and are the most effective medication at reducing inflammation, a key component of asthma.

Asthma has no cure, it is a chronic lung disease caused by an inflammation of the airways which produces symptoms which can include wheezing, shortness or breath, coughing and chest tightness; more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from asthma, 22 million in the United States alone.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asthma kills about 3,780 people each year and causes almost half a million hospitalizations.

Flovent, Advair, Pulmicort, Azmacort, Qvar and Asmanex are other inhaled corticosteroids.