What are the triggers of asthma?
Asthma sufferers have sensitive airways that can become narrow due to swelling, tight airway muscles and blockages from excess mucus. Common triggers for an attack include viral infections, allergens, air pollution and exercise.
How is asthma diagnosed?
There is no single test for asthma and a diagnosis will be made by a doctor after discussing symptoms, medical history, a physical examination as well as a spirometry test to measure lung function if the child is at least six years old.
How is asthma managed?
The goal of asthma management is to prevent attacks from occurring, or if they do, to minimise the severity and duration of an attack. The main types of asthma medicines are relievers (ie an inhaler or puffer which is used when symptoms occur) and preventers such as inhaled corticosteroid. Knowing what triggers your child’s symptoms and reducing their exposure to these will also help.
About 20 per cent of both asthmatic children and adults will have persistent disease that is not controlled with current medication. There are about 400 asthma deaths in Australia every year.
Find out more about asthma from Asthma Australia.
*Seek immediate medical attention if your child has trouble breathing or their symptoms do not improve after following their asthma action plan.
Our research impact
Researchers are interested in how and why asthma develops in children. The Childhood Asthma Study and Raine Study have been following groups of children into their teens and beyond, collecting information which includes details of how immune responses triggered in the lungs by early respiratory infections and allergies interact to drive this disease.
They believe a key to guarding against asthma lies in aiding the young immune system to "switch on" protective mechanisms which actively suppress the development of allergic sensitisation.
The The Kids Research Institute Australia has led development of an asthma vaccine in a world-first international trial, to test the possibility of controlled exposure of babies and toddlers to tiny doses of common allergens, such as house dust mite, grass and cat allergen, as an oral vaccine to stimulate immune responses which protect against allergy. The first stage in this trial successfully proved that this could be done safely, and larger-scale follow-up trials are now in progress in the UK.
Since the diagnosis of exercise-induced asthma is difficult because the tests used are harder for young children to perform, specialised lung function tests have been developed which can be used in children as young as three years.
Research into the effects of ultraviolet radiation and vitamin D3 on the immune system has shown that small UV doses, equivalent to a short period in the midday sun, can be protective against developing asthmatic symptoms. Latest findings also indicate that vitamin D3 deficiency during infancy increases risk for later development of asthma, apparently by increasing susceptibility to respiratory allergies.
As part of the Raine Study, children born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy were found to have reduced lung function and were more likely to have asthma and wheeze.
