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Asthma affecting Logan County residents     Send a link to a friend

[JAN. 28, 2004]  Mark Hilliard, administrator of the Logan County Health Department, has announced the formation of a county asthma partnership.

Asthma ranks among the most common chronic conditions in the United States. Over the past 15 years the number of people afflicted annually with asthma has doubled, and the prevalence of asthma continues to rise.

Asthma has become a leading health concern. Linked to environmental and other causes, asthma poses many harmful consequences, many requiring hospital admission and some deadly if untreated.

In addition, asthma sufferers experience high direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include loss of wages due to missed work; indirect costs include poor grades for children due to increased absenteeism.

In Logan County, more than 10 percent of all kindergarten through 12th-graders use inhalers for asthma; 12.1 percent of adults report a diagnosis of asthma; and more than 15 percent of high school students have been diagnosed with asthma.

 

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In response to these alarming rates, the Logan County Health Department is facilitating the formation of a partnership to address asthma in our community. Funding for this project is made possible in part from a grant received from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Office of Health Promotion.

People wishing to actively participate in the partnership may do so by attending a meeting on Thursday, Feb. 19, at 2 p.m. at the health department.

For more information contact Marcia Dowling at (217) 735-2317.

[Logan County Health Department news release]

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