FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Teresa Mace
Division of Health Promotion
WV Bureau for Public Health
(304) 558-0644
Fax: (304)558-1553

January 22, 2002

(CHARLESTON) The West Virginia Bureau for Public Health has received funding

from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga. to develop a new

West Virginia Asthma Education and Prevention Program.

The West Virginia Tobacco Prevention Program applied for the grant following a

report released in July 2001 by the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), in which West

Virginia was identified as one of 12 high pollution states failing to track asthma. The TFAH

report analyzed particulate matter, ozone, and suspected respiratory toxins - three

pollutants that public health officials believe are linked to asthma.

An estimated 14 million Americans suffer from asthma, and its prevalence has

been increasing since the early 1980s. Almost 12 percent of West Virginia adults have

been told by a health professional that they have asthma according to the 2000 Behavioral

Risk Factor Survey (BRFS). Very little information is available regarding children under

the age of 18.

Development of a statewide asthma surveillance system to compile better asthma-

related data is among the goals of the new program, along with development of a

statewide plan to address asthma and development and implementation of asthma

interventions.

"This program will give us the tools to find out how serious the asthma problem is

in West Virginia, and develop an effective intervention program" said Dr. Henry Taylor,

commissioner of the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health. "Nationally, asthma is the

leading serious chronic disease in children, and we are excited that we have been given

the opportunity to be able to address this disease in our state."

David Deutsch, currently a program coordinator with the West Virginia Tobacco

Prevention Program, has been hired as the program manager for the West Virginia

Asthma Education and Prevention Program.