New Data in the Severe Asthma Index Underscore Global Inequality in Severe Asthma prevention and care

Associated Press

06-05-2025

On World Asthma Day 2025, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies announces a major expansion of the Severe Asthma Index.
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, May 6, 2025 / EINPresswire.com / -- This new update includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Israel, The Kingdom of Saudia Arabia, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, and the UAE. For the new countries, more than 1000 additional data points have been analysed and validated by national health experts, underlining the nuanced picture of severe asthma. The Index now consists of 3139 data points in total describing policy, access and care, health system, disease burden and environmental factors.
Despite growing global focus on Asthma, this serious chronic respiratory condition continues to claim lives and burden health systems around the world. Every year, an estimated 455,000 deaths are attributed to asthma, most of them preventable with the right treatment and awareness of symptoms.
To help address this challenge, the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (CIFS) have created the Severe Asthma Index - a unique data-driven tool that evaluates how countries prevent, diagnose, and manage severe asthma. The goal of the Index is to provide a comprehensive overview of national performance and help inform more effective data-driven respiratory health policies.
'The Severe Asthma Index exposes a hard truth: we already have the science, the medicines, and the guidelines. What we lack is implementation at scale. People are still dying because severe asthma is under-recognised, affordable controller drugs and biologics are out of reach for many, and air-quality, housing, and tobacco policies remain disconnected from health goals.' says Aron Szpisjak, Head of Health at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.
The expansion of the Severe Asthma Index particularly focuses on Latin America, where in many countries Severe Asthma is not formally recognized and even a few regulatory changes could prevent thousands of needless hospitalisations. This will be elaborated in the upcoming Spanish report on Severe Asthma in Latin America.
The expansion of the severe asthma index is accompanied by 4 strategic calls to action to help policy makers go from what needs to be done and instead focus on how to do it:
• Advance prevention and early intervention by addressing environmental triggers and ensuring timely access to treatment
• Strengthen coherent long-term strategies through international collaboration to implement clinical guidelines based on global best practices
• Improve severe asthma reporting by adopting standardised data collection methods and expanding the use of electronic health records to support evidence-based health system responses
• Empower patients through education initiatives that raise awareness of asthma and support self-management
Read more in the Severe Asthma index report, interact with our data and explore each country ranking and profile at www.respiratoryhealth.org .
The Severe Asthma Index has been developed and expanded with unrestricted support from Sanofi and Regeneron.
Toke Hanghøj
Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies
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