简介:Asthmaisverycommoninchildren;inWesterncountries,itisthemostcommondiagnosisinchilrenadmittedtohospital.Mostsurveysreportthatatlesst10%ofchildrenhavebeendiagnosedwithasthma,andrecentstudiesnotethatupto40-50%ofpre-schoolchildrenhavehadrecurrentwheezeoverthepreceding12mohths.Thereisnowlittledoubtthattheprevalenceofasthmahasincreasedworldwideoverthelast10-20years(Figure1).