Asthma: A disease with stories

ASTHMA
A Disease with Stories

"According to the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report, India contributes to an estimated 12.9% of global asthma cases (34.3 million) but a disproportionate 42.3% of all global asthma deaths. Also, asthma causes 4.83 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) annually in India, four times more than China, which ranks second."

~NCBI

Introduction

Asthma, also called bronchial asthma, is a disease that affects your lungs. It’s a chronic (ongoing) condition, meaning it doesn’t go away and needs ongoing medical management. 

What it costs?

Statistics is one way to see how much it affects the economy, population size and the advancement of technology in curing it. From a primary level perspective, it is the family who suffers the most. If a child dies the family's lineage is affected, if an old one dies the family's history is affected. 
The stories of asthma affected patients shows that they often have to struggle with their daily chores, thus making them feel different from others.

What have we done about it?

Coming straight to the point, in this era of technology, medical field has expanded its solution.
Some of the major developments include:

• Smart inhalers have been developed to track medication use and ensure patients follow their prescribed regimen. These inhalers have sensors that detect when the inhaler is used and send the data to a mobile app or healthcare provider.
• Wearable asthma trackers can measure environmental factors and a person's vital signs in real time. These devices can monitor air quality, humidity and temperature and in built oximeters.
• Predictive analytics powered by AI is helping predict asthma exacerbations before they happen. Machine learning algorithms analyze data from wearables, smart inhalers, and environmental sensors to identify patterns and forecast potential triggers.
• Surgery are used to expand the broncioles inside the lungs so that more air can go inside.

What we conclude from this?

Though the above solutions are only temporary and does not account for complete eradication of disease. Thus, engineers of today's generation should focus more on in-depth solution or solution which is close to curing the disease affecting millions of people across the globe.