Overview
Bronchial asthma (or asthma) is a lung disease. Your airways get narrow and swollen and are blocked by excess mucus. Medications can treat these symptoms.

What is asthma?
Asthma, also called bronchial asthma, is a disease that affects your lungs. It’s a chronic (ongoing) condition, meaning it doesn’t go away and needs ongoing medical management.
Asthma is common in Uganda and is associated with smoking, biomass smoke exposure, urbanization, and allergic diseases
Asthma causes bronchospasms, inflammation, thick mucus and constriction in the airways.

What is an asthma attack?
When you breathe normally, muscles around your airways are relaxed, letting air move easily and quietly. During an asthma attack, three things can happen:
•    Bronchospasm: The muscles around the airways constrict (tighten). When they tighten, it makes your airways narrow. Air cannot flow freely through constricted airways.
•    Inflammation: The lining of your airways becomes swollen. Swollen airways don’t let as much air in or out of your lungs.
•    Mucus production: During the attack, your body creates more mucus. This thick mucus clogs airways.
When your airways get tighter, you make a sound called wheezing when you breathe, a noise your airways make when you breathe out. You might also hear an asthma attack called an exacerbation or a flare-up. It’s the term for when your asthma isn’t controlled.

What types of asthma are there?
Asthma is broken down into types based on the cause and the severity of symptoms. Healthcare providers identify asthma as:

• Mild intermittent asthma. Mild symptoms less than twice a week. Nighttime symptoms less than twice a month. Few asthma attacks.

• Mild persistent asthma. Symptoms three to six times a week. Nighttime symptoms three to four times a month. Asthma attacks might affect activities.

• Moderate persistent asthma. Daily asthma symptoms. Nighttime attacks five or more times a month. Symptoms may affect activities.

• Severe persistent asthma. Ongoing symptoms both day and night. You have to limit your activities

Asthma can also be:.

• Adult-onset: This type of asthma starts after the age of 18.

• Pediatric: Also called childhood asthma, this type of asthma often begins before the age of 5, and can occur in infants and toddlers. Children may outgrow asthma. You should make sure that you discuss it with your provider before you decide whether your child needs to have an inhaler available in case they have an asthma attack. Your child’s healthcare provider can help you understand the risks.

• Status asthmaticus. These long-lasting asthma attacks don’t go away when you use bronchodilators. They’re a medical emergency that needs treatment right away.

In addition, there are these types of asthma:

• Exercise-induced asthma: This type is triggered by exercise and is also called exercise-induced bronchospasm. It happens during physical activity, when you breathe in air that’s drier than what’s in your body, and your airways narrow. It can affect people who don’t have asthma, too. You’ll notice symptoms within a few minutes after you start to exercise, and they might last 10 to 15 minutes after you stop

• Occupational asthma: This type of asthma happens primarily to people who work around irritating substances.

• Asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS): This type happens when you have both asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Both diseases make it difficult to breathe.

• Eosinophilic asthma. This severe form is marked by high levels of white blood cells called eosinophils. It usually affects adults between 35 and 50 years old.

• Nocturnal asthma. Your asthma symptoms get worse at night.

• Aspirin-induced asthma. You have asthma symptoms when you take aspirin, along with a runny nose, sneezing, sinus pressure, and a cough.

• Cough-variant asthma. Unlike with other types, the only symptom of this kind of asthma is a long-term cough.

Who can get asthma?

Anyone can develop asthma at any age. People with allergies or people exposed to tobacco smoke are more likely to develop asthma. This includes secondhand smoke (exposure to someone else who is smoking) and third hand smoke (exposure to clothing or surfaces in places where some has smoked).

Statistics show that people assigned female at birth tend to have asthma more than people assigned male at birth. Asthma affects Black people more frequently than other races.

What causes asthma?

Researchers don’t know why some people have asthma while others don’t. But certain factors present a higher risk:

• Allergies: Some people’s allergies can cause an asthma attack. Allergens include things like molds, pollens and pet dander.

• Non-allergic: Outside factors can cause asthma to flare up and these include Environmental factors, genetics, infections as described below;

  • Environmental factors: People can develop asthma after exposure to things that irritate the airways. These substances include allergens, toxins, fumes and second- or third-hand smoke. These can be especially harmful to infants and young children whose immune systems haven’t finished developing.

  • Genetics: If your family has a history of asthma or allergic diseases, you have a higher risk of developing the disease.

  • Respiratory infections: Certain respiratory infections, such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), can damage young children’s developing lungs.

What are common asthma attack triggers?
You can have an asthma attack if you come in contact with substances that irritate you. Healthcare providers call these substances “triggers.” Knowing what triggers your asthma makes it easier to avoid asthma attacks.

For some people, a trigger can bring on an attack right away. For other people, or at other times, an attack may start hours or days later.

Triggers can be different for each person. But some common triggers include:

• Air pollution: Many things outside can cause an asthma attack. Air pollution includes factory emissions, car exhaust, wildfire smoke and more.

• Dust mites: You can’t see these bugs, but they are in our homes. If you have a dust mite allergy, this can cause an asthma attack.

• Exercise: For some people, exercising can cause an attack.

• Mold: Damp places can spawn mold, which can cause problems if you have asthma. You don’t even have to be allergic to mold to have an attack.

• Pests: Cockroaches, mice and other household pests can cause asthma attacks.

• Pets: Your pets can cause asthma attacks. If you’re allergic to pet dander (dried skin flakes), breathing in the dander can irritate your airways.

• Tobacco smoke: If you or someone in your home smokes, you have a higher risk of developing asthma. You should never smoke in enclosed places like the car or home, and the best solution is to quit smoking. Your provider can help.

• Strong chemicals or smells. These things can trigger attacks in some people.

• Certain occupational exposures. You can be exposed to many things at your job, including cleaning products, dust from flour or wood, or other chemicals. These can all be triggers if you have asthma.

What are the signs and symptoms of asthma?

People with asthma usually have obvious symptoms. These signs and symptoms resemble many respiratory infections:

• Chest tightness, pain or pressure.

• Coughing (especially at night).

• Shortness of breath.

• Wheezing.

With asthma, you may not have all of these symptoms with every flare. You can have different symptoms and signs at different times with chronic asthma. Also, symptoms can change between asthma attacks.