Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases that is a growing public health concern. Some of the effects of asthma include missing school, work, sleep disruption, constant medical visit. Asthma is a disease that prevents oxygen from properly going to the lungs, making it hard for the individual to breathe. Some of the symptoms of asthma that directly affect a person’s health include shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing and tightness in the chest which can lead to death.
These two graphs above and below show the Emergency Department Visits per 10,000 in Imperial Valley. The darker purple shaded regions represent Imperial Valley which shows that they will have a rate of more than 140 people per 10,000 visiting the Emergency Department in 2022.
Youth asthma Emergency Department visits are particularly high in the Imperial Valley, south of the Salton Sea. This area is characterized by low incomes, low insurance coverage rates, and high outdoor air pollutant levels. For children you have asthma in California, there is no place worse than Imperial County. Children in Imperial County are far more likely to end up in the emergency room or hospitalized than any other county in California. Kids go to the emergency room for asthma at a rate three times higher than the state’s average, according to the Department of Public Health. One in five children ages 5-17 living in Imperial County with this chronic respiratory disease. Although this cannot be cured, it can be managed with medication. And in extreme cases it can cause hospitalization and even death.
The Imperial Valley already suffers from the highest childhood asthma hospitalization rates in California as you can see from the figure on the side.
Are you suffering from worry that your child might have asthma? Do you want to know more about how asthma affects your child? Do you want to learn about what to do when an asthma attack starts? Are you unsure of what asthma medications are available and how to use them? Are you a resident of Imperial Valley?
If so, El Centro Regional Medical center has a Imperial valley child asthma program that is designed to reduce health disparities and improve the development and school readiness of children under 5 that suffer from asthma or have asthma related symptoms. This program also focuses on good parental asthma management that will help children better control their asthma symptoms. It has been shown that when a child’s asthma is controlled, they are less likely to miss school and go to the hospital.
Your clinic or health care provider can provide you with a free referral. Call your Doctor or clinic for a referral today.
The Imperial Valley Child Asthma Program is located at:
1470 S Imperial Avenue, Suite A
El Centro, CA 92243Call: 760-4820978
Information cited from these sources:
http://www.thesaltonseaspeaks.com/search/label/asthma
http://renewablesforsaltonsea.com/poverty-asthma-demographics/
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/16/local/la-me-imperial-county-asthma-20120716
http://www.ecrmc.org/programs-&-education/imperial-valley-child-asthma-program/