The Worldwide Threat of Lung Disease

There's simply one way to fight lung disease: arm the front line of care with knowledge.

New information, based on sound science, is created by research.  Clinical (with patients) and basic (in the laboratory) research is key to unlock a cure for many of the respiratory illnesses suffered by people worldwide.  Translating science from the laboratory bench to the patients' bedside is equally important.

• Diseases once thought eradicated, such as TB, are back.  Disease knows no borders.  One international airline passenger can spread deadly illness to millions.
  • 1 billion exposed worldwide; 200 million develop symptoms, of which 70 million will die annually
• Asthma is increasingly prevalent worldwide.  American school nurses' and principals' drawers are stuffed with inhalers labeled by child's name.  When a child's airway swells shut, no amount of CPR will reopen it.
  • 26 million Americans afflicted; no cure; thought to be genetic
• Sleep apnea, which may not kill by itself, is responsible for tens of millions of lost  work hours in the US economy, and contributes to heart attacks and strokes that eventually prove deadly.
  • 18 million Americans losing sleep every year
• Black, Brown and White Lung are preventable, occupationally acquired diseases suffered by coal miners, textile and asbestos workers.
  • Brown lung - 35,000 US deaths between 1979 and 1996
  • Black lung - 14,156 US deaths between 1979 and 1996
  • White lung - 3,922 US deaths between 1979 and 1996

Need more evidence of the critical need to unlock airway disease causes, treatments, preventions and cures?