Despite the loss of one of Nigeria’s Nollywood greats to the cold hands of death after suffering an asthma attack, Woman Editor, TEMITOPE DAVID-ADEGBOYE, writes that the disease is not a death sentence after all
Last week, Nigerians woke up to the shocking news that accomplished writer, producer, director, entrepreneur and teacher, Amaka Igwe, had passed on. According to reports, she had suffered an asthma attack and was being rushed to the hospital, when she gave up the ghost.
The sudden death of the prolific director has again brought to the fore the painful fact that asthma is a killer disease and it has, indeed, killed quite a number of people.
One that readily comes to mind is that of Amadi Ogbonna, also a consummate entertainment writer with one of the nation’s popular newspapers, who died two years ago, while being rushed to a hospital, after he suffered a similar attack.
Asthma is a chronic disease of the respiratory system. It causes inflammation in tubes that carry air to the lungs (bronchial tubes). The inflammation makes the sufferer’s bronchial tubes likely to over-react to certain triggers. An over-reaction can lead to decreased lung function, sudden difficulty in breathing, and other symptoms. The disorder causes the airways of the lungs to swell and narrow, leading to wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing.
According to experts, asthma can start at any age – from age one to infinity. But in an elderly person, the other thing to consider range from whether the person was a smoker before or has had heart failure due to other diseases. But depending on the age of the patient, there are other diseases that look like asthma; so one must be careful to get treated for the right aliment.
Unfortunately, the exact cause of asthma remains unknown. What is known is that there are two components: genetic and environmental factors.
“It is a generic thing, and then environmental factors act on what is inherited to bring about what is called asthma,” explains Dr. Cyril Chukwu, a consultant pulmonologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). “Why it does not manifest, sometimes until old age, or why it manifests in a child, nobody is able to tell. Asthma is not contagious; it is inherited in the genes.
“People with asthma have common features. Most prominent among them all is chronic airway inflammation and excessive airway sensitivity to various triggers. However, triggers vary among individuals because each person with asthma has his or her own irritants.”
Dr. Chukwu describes some triggers as substances (allergens) the sufferer may be allergic to. These include exposure to tobacco or wood smoke, breathing polluted air, inhaling other respiratory irritants such as perfumes, insecticides or cleaning products, food items, and exposure to airway irritants at the workplace.
Wonder how food items could trigger an attack? Chukwu says: “Yes, some asthma patients are sensitive to corn, garri, yam, beans and so on.”
However, the important point is that it is individualised.
“An asthmatic that is sensitive to corn should not tell others not to eat corn because he or she is sensitive to corn. It does not follow,” Chukwu advised.
Emotions also play a very important role as a trigger factor of the ailment. “Anger, frustration, disappointment, unhappiness are also known to trigger asthma, and these are the most difficult ones to treat because there is nothing a doctor can do to reduce the anger or unhappiness.”
But wheezing (noisy breathing), he says, is the most common symptom of an asthma attack.
Nigerians are not the only ones with this burden, as there has been a sharp increase in the global prevalence. This, Dr. Chukwu attributes to development. The more developed a society is, the more asthma patients it has.
Currently, it is estimated that about 300 million people globally are living with asthma, while the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA)’s Global Burden of Asthma Report indicates that an estimated number of 255,000 deaths are as a result of the condition. Most of these deaths were and are still preventable; but sadly, the ailment’s prevalence is expected to increase by 50 per cent every decade.
Perhaps, it is because of this prevalence that the first Tuesday in May every year is set aside as World Asthma Day. It aims to create awareness on the disease, its appropriate care, defensive methods, healthcare providers, employees as well as government officials. The first World Asthma Day was observed by more than 35 countries in 1998 in union with the first World Asthma Meeting held in Barcelona, Spain.
Notwithstanding the frightening morbidity figures, Chukwu reveals that asthma is not a death sentence, as patients can still live full and active lives without frequent visits to the hospital. But these can be only achieved when the asthma is under control.
There is no cure for asthma, although symptoms sometimes improve over time. With proper self-management and medical treatment, most people with asthma can lead normal lives.
“There is no one straight jacket treatment for the ailment,” he added. “Even in an individual, the way he will be treated, if he has an attack today, will be different if he has an attack next week. The simplest form of treatment is the inhaler, after which the person should go to the hospital.
He urged anyone who coughs often, with shortness of breath, to see a chest physician to prevent putting their life at risk. If this is not done, and in good time, there would be a progressive increase in the shortness of breath, cough, wheezing or chest tightness.
