Huge rise in asthma attacks among adults

Asthma attacks in adults are soaring, new figures show.

Hospitals in some parts of London are seeing almost double the number of asthma patients aged over 17 compared with two years ago.

But the number of children admitted with breathing difficulties has fallen, suggesting efforts to protect them are working.

The rise in adult cases is revealed in Department of Health figures showing the number of hospital admissions for asthma in each part of London. Doctors saw 26 per cent more adult cases in the 12 months between October 2003 and September last year than during the same period in 2001-2.

A total of 5,632 "finished episodes" - meaning emergency admissions, appointments with specialists or in-patient treatments - were recorded, compared with 4,462 two years previously. Most of the admissions were probably emergencies. The biggest rise was in Bromley, where doctors saw 98 per cent more cases in 2003-4 than during the same period two years earlier.

Other parts of the capital with significant increases were Brent, where admissions rose by 56 per cent, Enfield, where they climbed by 53 per cent, and Richmond by 50 per cent.

Experts are divided over the causes of asthma, with some arguing that the condition is genetic and others blaming the environment and lifestyle.

Many asthma sufferers in Brent blame pollution from a goods yard in Neasden, which recycles paper and transfers refuse from road to rail.

Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East, who obtained the figures, said: "Asthma rates are soaring in my constituency and... pollution from the yard has been assessed as 70 times the acceptable level."

The number of child asthma cases fell from 4,367 in 2001-2 to 3,751 in 2003-4. In 1997-8, hospital doctors recorded 5,978 cases.

This means either that fewer children suffer severe attacks or that they are receiving better care from GPs, who reduce the need for emergency treatment.

Asthma affects about one in 12 adults in the UK and one in 10 children. The vast majority of sufferers can control symptoms with inhalers.

Professor Martyn Partridge, of the British Thoracic Society, said it was probably easier to control asthma in children than in adults.

Although the number of diagnoses has soared in the past 30 years, the number of deaths has fallen dramatically.

Professor Partridge added: "It's possible that avoidable hospital visits are declining in children but we need to be aware that asthma is still a major health burden and much persisting ill health from asthma could be avoided with more effective care."