In addition, asthma has been, and continues to be on the rise among children and adults. Scientists have not been able to determine a definitive cause for the increase. The bronchial tubes of asthma sufferers are almost continuously inflamed and hyperactive, sent into suffocating spasms by a broad range of provocations that may vary from on individual to another. An attack finds the victim gasping for breath as the airways become constricted, the passages inflamed and clogged with thick, sticky secretions.
People infrequently outgrow the condition entirely.
The occurrence of childhood asthma is three times as high in Puerto Rican children as compared to Non-Hispanic White children. Severity also varies from group to group. Black children are three times as likely as Whites to be hospitalized for treatment of asthma. And that number tells only part of the story. The findings of a 1997 Detroit study show that Black children were likely to have more severe disease than White children of the same socioeconomic status.