NEWS THAT A new asthma drug could revolutionise treatment for severe asthmatics came too late for 52-year-old Emmie Zulueta. Two years ago, her daughter Cynthia died from an asthma attack in the Philippines. Zulueta, a single mother and domestic helper in Hong Kong for 26 years, is still trying to come to terms with her loss.
'My daughter suffered from asthma since she was four,' she says. 'I did everything I could. When she was hospitalised just before she died, I spent nearly all my life savings on medication for her.'
Although many people think of asthma as a mild childhood disease, in its severe form asthma is potentially deadly. 'The biggest cause of death in asthma is through lack of diagnosis and appropriate treatment,' says Robert Sussman, an asthma specialist from the US who was recently in Hong Kong to educate respiratory specialists about new treatments. 'Essentially, no one should die of asthma.'
Yet every year in Hong Kong, between 70 and 90 people die from it, according to the Hong Kong Asthma Society. Among them was Tsang Kam-yin, a runner who died in this year's Hong Kong marathon.
On February 12, the air pollution index was high and as Hong Kong sweltered in filthy air - coupled with the physical exertion of the 42km race - the 53-year-old's underlying respiratory illness was triggered. He fell unconscious and died two days later in hospital.
According to the asthma society, between 15 and 20 per cent of children in Hong Kong and between five and 15 per cent of adults are asthma sufferers.