02 May 2011 | General, CMST, ESSEM
World Asthma Day
3 May 2011 is World Asthma Day, an annual event organised by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) to improve asthma awareness and care around the world.
Today, GINA will launch the next phase of its campaign to reduce asthma hospitalisations 50% worldwide by 2015.
COST applauds this aim and has been doing its part to help through the work of its Actions.
COST Action D21 aimed to better facilitate the development of drugs targeted to diseases such as cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disorders and asthma. The Action ended in 1996 with an increased knowledge of the chemistry of metal sites in proteins to strengthen their application to chemical, biotechnological, pharmacological and environmental sciences.
COST Action ES0603 EUPOL is scheduled to finish towards the end of 2011 and deals with the assessment of production, release, distribution and health impact of allergenic pollen in Europe. This is an important Action to better understand the causes of Asthma as some studies show that exposure to high levels of birch pollen in infancy increases the risk of sensitisation to birch pollen allergens and the risk of allergic asthma.
We hope that GINA's new campaign will become a reality and look forward to continuing to help understand this disease.
