More Americans than ever before say they are suffering from asthma, according to a report released April 24 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children with asthma miss an average of twice as many school days as other children.
Asthma attacks can vary from mild symptoms to serious, life-threatening episodes.
More than 5,000 Americans died last year from asthma attacks. Blacks also have significantly more emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and deaths from asthma than whites. From 1993-1995, there were an average of 38.5 deaths per million from asthma in blacks compared to 15.1 per million in whites. In 1995, blacks were more than four times more likely than whites to visit an emergency room because of asthma. The cause of asthma is not well understood, and scientists do not know why so many more people today are suffering from asthma and why symptoms appear more severe than they were 10 years ago.