“It takes years for a diagnosis of severe asthma and just as many for treatment. The new therapies are also useful for those people who already have a correct diagnosis, but who unfortunately do not have the right drug. For my son, who had his first episode at 4 months old, it took 9 years for a diagnosis and 5 for adequate therapy. But there are also patients like Chiara who received the diagnosis of severe asthma at the age of 40 and, despite the correct diagnosis, she has been looking for the appropriate therapy for ten years, even though she had been a candidate for more than one biologic. I spoke to her last week and she, finally, says that with this drug she seems to have come back to life”. Thus Simona Barbaglia, president of the national patient association Let's breathe together Aps, during an event promoted by AstraZeneca, today in Milan, comments on the news of Aifa's green light for the reimbursement of tezepelumab, the first monoclonal anti-Tslp (thymic stromal lymphopoietin, a cytokine upstream of the inflammatory cascade of the bronchial endothelium) for the treatment of severe asthma.
The disease is underestimated. “As an association – continues Barbaglia – since the beginning of February, we have launched a survey on our asthmatic population on the use and who prescribes oral corticosteroids. To date, 708 people have responded, of which 312 define themselves as asthmatics only and not as severe asthmatics. Analyzing the data, however, it emerged that only 3%, i.e. 9 people, do not take corticosteroids, while 59%, i.e. 185 people, take them at least once a year, by mouth, on the doctor's prescription , but also 2 or 3 times a year, without a doctor's prescription. Are we sure that 'just asthmatics' are not actually severe asthmatics? Are we sure that these 185 people have been started on the correct therapy, including inhalation? Maybe they're not doing it right. But the real question is: how many of these have not yet been diagnosed and, to survive the symptom, are somehow looking for an answer that has not yet been given?”, asks the representative of caregivers and patients with asthma.
“Precisely to guarantee correct diagnosis and treatment paths but also the social rights of protection at work and at school – adds Barbaglia – as an association since 2018 we have been fighting for severe asthma to obtain its specific dignity, with a specific exemption code included in the National plan for chronic conditions, with within the Lea”, the essential levels of assistance, “guaranteed services or in any case with a code both to guarantee the diagnosis, but also correct management and correct therapies. Already in the previous legislature we had presented a bill to have severe asthma recognized as a disabling pathology. On January 30 – he concludes – we were finally able to re-present it. We hope that this time the process will be concluded and that the healthcare and social rights of people will finally be guaranteed these people”.
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