Prioritised research agenda for prevention and control of chronic respiratory diseases

The 2008-2013 World Health Organization (WHO) action plan on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) includes chronic respiratory diseases as one of its four priorities. Major chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) include asthma and rhinitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, occupational lung diseases, sleep-disordered breathing, pulmonary hypertension, bronchiectiasis and pulmonary interstitial diseases. A billion people suffer from chronic respiratory diseases, the majority being in developing countries. CRDs have major adverse effects on the life and disability of patients. Effective intervention plans can prevent and control CRDs, thus reducing morbidity and mortality. A prioritised research agenda should encapsulate all of these considerations in the frame of the global fight against NCDs. This requires both CRD-targeted interventions and transverse NCD programmes which include CRDs, with emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention.

Pharmacologic and anti-IgE treatment of allergic rhinitis ARIA update (in collaboration with GA2LEN)

The pharmacologic treatment of allergic rhinitis proposed by ARIA is an evidence-based and step-wise approach based on the classification of the symptoms. The ARIA workshop, held in December 1999, published a report in 2001 and new information has subsequently been published. The initial ARIA document lacked some important information on several issues. This document updates the ARIA sections on the pharmacologic and anti-IgE treatments of allergic rhinitis. Literature published between January 2000 and December 2004 has been included. Only a few studies assessing nasal and non-nasal symptoms are presented as these will be discussed in a separate document.

[The epidemiology of tuberculosis and of the resistance to antitubercular agents]

Tuberculosis is once more a subject of world wide preoccupation; since 1985 a disturbing recrudescence of this disease has been noted in numerous countries related to population growth and the worsening of poverty in those countries without natural resources, and disadvantaged groups living on the margins of society in rich countries, along with the occurrence of an epidemic of HIV (VIH). In numerous developed countries where tuberculosis no longer represents a public health problem, the care services have little by little been closed or re-orientated and the principles of treatment of tuberculosis have been forgotten. The direct consequence of this has often been inadequate treatment and its corollary: the emergence of strains multiresistant to Isoniazid and Rifampicin. If the current epidemiological tendencies are confirmed and no supplementary action is taken, the WHO (OMS) has estimated that during the ten years between 1990 and the millennium there will be 88 million new cases of tuberculosis and 30 million people will die of tuberculosis. However the tendencies can be reversed and tuberculosis could still be eliminated. The struggle against tuberculosis is a world wide emergency and the hope of controlling the situation before an increase in multiresistant strains which would render the trend irreversible, rests on a general application of correct and coherent national programmes. Such a programme as the UICTMR model had already been carried out as has the proof of their efficacy.