Asthma inhaler 'failing children'

By Michelle Roberts
Health reporter, BBC News
BBC News

More than one in 10 children with asthma are taking inhalers that may do nothing for them, UK researchers say.

Blue inhalers contain "reliever" drugs

In Britain alone, 100,000 children - 13% of all children with asthma - carry two copies of a gene that renders the blue inhaler drug salbutamol redundant.

If these children need to use their "reliever" inhaler daily they are 30% more likely to suffer an asthma attack than others, their study shows.

Experts said children should continue to take medication as prescribed.

Co-author Professor Somnath Mukhopadhyay, of the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said: "Do not stop using your inhaler or change the way you use the inhalers.

"Salbutamol via the blue inhaler is effective reliever treatment in most children but it is common experience among doctors that a proportion of children do not seem to respond to this medicine as well as others."

The reason for this appears to be a genetic variant called Arg16.

Although this gene does not increase an individual's chance of getting asthma in the first place or make their asthma worse, it does seem to alter how well certain asthma medicines will work. Read more...