Asthma

Legislation & Policy

The CDC National Asthma Control Program supports laws that allow children to carry and deliver their own medicine in case of an asthma attack. This is just one example of policies that we support to help Americans with asthma. Follow this link to see who to contact regarding these topics.

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Helping Americans with Asthma

CDC’s National Asthma Control Program helps Americans with asthma achieve better health and improved quality of life and to reduce the overall hardship that asthma puts on the workforce, healthcare system, and communities.

We are a resource for people with asthma.

We collect information and follow trends related to asthma.
We share our knowledge with the programs we support and the asthma community.
We fund programs to create localized efforts to assist people with asthma.
We study the impact of asthma programs and treatment measures.

We use what we learn to re-invest in strategies that will help Americans with asthma.

Controlling Asthma in Schools [PDF - 176 KB]

CDC's National Asthma Control Program (NACP) plays a pivotal role in promoting asthma-friendly schools.

Asthma Impacts Your State

According to the Profiles, in 2007 asthma was the underlying cause of death for the following states:

• Georgia: 86 adults
• Ohio: 135 adults
• Illinois: 141 adults

Asthma affects an estimated 18.7 million adults (aged +18 years) and 7 million children (aged< 18 years) in the United States. CDC's National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) recently released the 2011 Asthma State Profiles to provide an overview of the burden of asthma in 34 states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, all of which receive funding from the CDC National Asthma Control Program.

The 2011 Asthma State Profiles provide information about the number of people who are affected by asthma in each state. The Profiles address the following categories:

Adults and children
Hospitalizations

Deaths
Asthma patient education and medication use

Click on your state within the map to get more detailed information.

Learn More about Asthma

Asthma is a disease that

affects your lungs,
is one of the most common long-term diseases of children (adults can have it, too), and
causes repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and night time or early morning coughing.

The exact cause of asthma is unknown, and asthma cannot be cured. However, if you or your child has asthma, it can be controlled by doing the following:

Receiving ongoing medical care and education about how to manage asthma and asthma attacks.
Avoiding asthma triggers at school, work, home, outdoors, and elsewhere.

Triggers for asthma can include mold, tobacco smoke, outdoor air pollution, and infections linked to influenza, colds, and other viruses. Avoiding these triggers, along with using inhaled corticosteroids and other medicines, are the keys to preventing an asthma attack. Visit CDC’s National Asthma Control Program site to learn more about asthma and how you can manage it.

Program Overview

CDC has been working with states for more than 10 years to implement and evaluate locally-based interventions, build neighborhood-based coalitions, and track the disease burden.