Posted Date: 5/12/2009
The title of two documents sums it up for our Valley residents who suffer from asthma and related respiratory problems: Struggling to Breath: The Epidemic of Asthma Among Children and Adolescents in the San Joaquin Valley and Gasping for Air: Why we must cultivate a healthier Central Valley. At the beginning of the 21st century, the San Joaquin Valley won the dishonorable designation of having the worst air in the country. Many of our Valley counties are considered the “asthma” capital of California – with one in every six children in the area suffering from asthma – six times the national rate. It is a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs characterized by recurrent episodes of breathlessness, wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness. Asthma is a disease that requires regular attention from health care providers. In Tulare County, poverty strikes hard at the farm workers living in our rural communities making it incredibly difficult to seek regular medical attention and manage this disease. All too often, our residents find themselves unable to prevent asthma “attacks”, leading to seeking necessary life saving treatment in the emergency room at Kaweah Delta. Kaweah Delta Health Care District treated close to 1400 patients for asthma in the 2008 in its emergency room, 435 of whom were children birth – 12 years of age. In fact, over half of those were children 0-5 years old, the fastest growing number of children diagnosed with asthma. A report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that between 1980 and 1994, the number of children 0-5 diagnosed with asthma increased by 160%, reaching epidemic proportions.
“President Obama signed a number of federal appropriations requests on Wednesday, March 11th. Among them was Senator Boxer’s request to fund Kaweah Delta’s asthma project which will be coordinated through our Community Outreach and Exeter Health Clinic. I am pleased with the funding of this asthma project which will be used to the benefit of asthma patients in this area”, says Lindsay Mann, CEO Kaweah Delta.
Kaweah Delta will partner with the American Lung Association, Tulare County Asthma Coalition and various other regional air quality and environmental groups to implement this project in the rural communities of Exeter, Farmersville, Ivanhoe and Lindsay. The project would include clinical case management services, home visits to provide an environmental evaluation, education and remediation, community awareness and policy/advocacy. The goal of the program is to increase awareness about the onset of asthma attacks to catch them at the earliest or to avoid completely, thus reducing doctor visits, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and the number of days children are unable to participate in play activities or attend school.
Senator Boxer said, "I am so pleased that I was able to obtain federal funding for the Kaweah Delta Hospital Foundation's asthma management program. Many people in rural California communities are suffering from asthma because of their exposure to air pollution. This important program will help protect the health of our families by offering valuable medical and educational services to our communities."
|
|
