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Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that is triggered by inflammatory responses causing airway narrowing, excess production of mucus membranes causing mucosal edema. This happens and can be seen in pictures of cockroaches that trigger asthma in some individuals.

Recurrent episodes of asthma are oftentimes caused by a specific allergen resulting from multiple symptoms including productive cough, rigidity of the chest, wheezing sound upon exhalation, and difficulty in breathing.

In the previous record of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States in 2019, they stated that more than 17 million Americans have asthma and 5,000 of them died at the end of the year because of the said disease.

Asthma, compared to the rest of the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) is greatly reversible either naturally or with the use of specific treatment.

Asthma patients may elicit periods of symptom-free and alternating days of exacerbation which lasts from minutes to hours or in worst cases, days.

As well, asthma occurs in kids, although this disease can strike at any age.

The death rate of this disease continues to rise in the tally of mortality every year even though technological advancements are making its way on the most sophisticated regimes to treat this disease.

For most cases of asthma, allergy is the most blamed cause. In such a way that if a person is exposed to various airway allergens for a long period of time, he or she has the greater risk of developing asthma.

Seasonal allergens that are common includes grass, pollens, and tree weeds while perennial allergens include dust, molds, roaches, or any other animal dander or fur.

For acute exacerbation of asthma in asthmatic patients, the leading causes are airway irritants such as:

• Air pollutants
• Cold temperature
• Heat
• Climate change
• Strong scents or fumes
• Smokes either from industrial plantations or cigarettes
• Exercise
• Stress (emotional, mental, physical distress)
• Sinusitis with post nasal drips
• Medications
• Viral respiratory tract infections, and
• Gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Asthmatic patients should be vigilant in submitting themselves for a series of test to identify the substances which precipitates their symptoms.

Most of these substances are greatly found in the environment. Thus, the environment of an asthmatic patient should be modified to ensure that it is free from a substance that triggers an asthma attack.

Also, patients are instructed to avoid these substances as much as possible. Knowledge is the best key to improve the quality of asthma care to get rid of complications that put patients at risk and even fatality.

Complications include lung collapse, respiratory failure, and status asthmaticus.

Obstruction in airway passages particularly during the course of asthmatic episodes results in decreased oxygen concentration in the body which is a fatal condition.

Patients are in close monitoring of oxygen saturation and arterial blood chemistry. Also, fluids and electrolytes are administered due to dehydration from diaphoresis and fluid losses during hyperventilation and excessive mucus production.

In this way, patients suffering from asthma are ensured of quality management to reduce case fatality.