Doctor: Asthma is nothing to sneeze at

July 06--Dr. Bhargavi Kola wants children to breathe easier.

Kola's work entails targeting the hurdle standing in way of healthy breathing -- namely, asthma.

Kola, an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Texas Tech Physicians of the Permian Basin, oversees a program to help children, including those in the Ector County Independent School District.

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center opened an asthma clinic in April with funds from the 1115 Waiver program, Kola said. The asthma clinic is open five days a week and has trained nurses and qualified/certified asthma educators who help in the project.

One of the program's primary goals is to teach children and their parents how to properly use medication and prevent frequent attacks, Kola said.

The program's main focus centers on ECISD students, but the clinic accepts all the children of Ector County regardless of their insurance until 19 years of age, Kola said.

"We've have known from the Ector County ISD that about 5,500 kids reported having difficulty breathing at least a year once last year, and that is the number one cause for school absences," Kola said. "So once the school year opens, we want to target these kids and get some forms to the nurses, and we can now have these parents come over and do an initial visit and a follow-up visit (for their children). Our aim to prevent them from going to the hospitals or ERs and then teach the parents basically how to control asthma, and they can be doctors at home. Because asthma is something that is very easily controlled, provided you have the knowledge of controlling it."

The Student Health Advisory Council of the Ector County Independent School District made a recommendation to the ECISD board in May regarding adding an enhanced asthma action plan to the district's regulations.

Symptoms of asthma include shortness of breath, difficulty breathing and difficulty during physical exertion. Kola said she has seen children with moderate to severe asthma who have never been diagnosed with asthma.

TTUHSC offers pulmonary function tests to detect asthma, she said.

Asthma is triggered by genetics or environment, Kola explained. Some people are born with a gene that causes asthma. Others develop the condition from external factors. Odessa's environment can especially boost asthma rates, with its lack of humidity and trees.

"Asthma is actually an allergy of the lungs, so anything which can trigger an allergic reaction will lead to asthma," Kola said, adding that asthma can be reversed, with the reduction of irritants such as smoke, pollution and dust.

As part of the education for asthma, asthma sufferers need to know how to properly use their breathing devices.

Kola said if parents suspect their children, from ages 0-18, have asthma, they should get their children checked. Parents should be aware that if their children have asthma they can still have an active life as far as play and exercise. The program seeks to help children control asthma and have a normal life without missing days at school, Kola said.

Inside Kola's office are charts (Asthma Action Plan) that describe a person's severity of asthma, from green zone (good) to yellow zone (caution) to red zone (danger). The action plan describes symptoms of asthma and actions for patients to take for their symptoms.

"We are still working on meeting up with ECISD and get to all the schools in Ector County before the schools re-open, and we are still building our tools and finishing up with our homework," Kola said. "We are trying to build a system where all the ECISD nurses can contact our asthma clinic in managing a child with asthma."

Kola said Texas Tech is working on a website for asthmatic kids so they can get more information about their condition and make appointments accordingly.

"We have had some almost near-death experiences with asthma in our schools," said ECISD Director of Health Services Laura Mathew. "We have children who have had attacks and we have rushed them to emergency room."

These situations can be prevented, she said, and that's where education comes into focus.

"What I can tell you is that we have 4,000 students diagnosed with asthma and we have a lot of students who miss a lot of days," Mathew said.

The district wants to curtail the number of students missing school and those having to make to trips to the emergency room.

"There is no reason for anyone to die from asthma attacks," she said.

She appreciates the opening of the asthma clinic at TTUHSC and said it can only help in spreading support and knowledge, as the district seeks to gain alliances with Medical Center Hospital and TTUHSC.

"Asthma is one of the diseases that you have to keep raising awareness," she said.

As far as the recommendations made to the board, "everything is kind of fluid right now" concerning its action, she said. She understands it takes time to study the issue but does not anticipate the board rejecting the recommendation, explaining in part that it costs no money.

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