World Asthma Day 2025: Bridging the Gap in Respiratory Care

Observed on the first Tuesday of May each year, World Asthma Day serves as a global platform to raise awareness, educate communities, and advocate for better asthma care. Initiated by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), this observance draws attention to the persistent challenges faced by people living with asthma, a disease that affects hundreds of millions worldwide. In 2025, World Asthma Day falls on May 6, with a powerful theme: “Make Inhaled Treatments Accessible for ALL.” This year's theme highlights the need to ensure that every individual living with asthma, regardless of economic or geographical barriers, has access to essential inhaled medications.

Global Burden of Asthma

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease characterized by wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. Asthma affects over 300 million people globally and imposes a substantial burden on healthcare systems, resulting in significant healthcare costs and more than 1,000 asthma-related deaths per day, according to WHO estimates — deaths that could often be prevented with proper care. Asthma disproportionately affects people in low- and middle-income countries where basic inhaled therapy options are either unavailable or inconsistently available, despite decades of medical progress.

A Preventable Crisis

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and bronchodilators are the principal medications used to treat asthma, either as single agents or in combination. Inhalation of these medications combats inflammatory responses in the airways, halting asthma attacks and lowering medical emergency and death rates. Because ICS and bronchodilators used alongside ICS are either unavailable or too expensive, a huge majority of asthma patients in underserved areas are administered just quick-relief medications. Patients who rely solely on quick-relief medications and ignore inflammation will have worsening symptoms, increasing their risk of deadly asthma episodes.

Theme Spotlight: "Make Inhaled Treatments Accessible for ALL"

GINA’s 2025 theme draws attention to the global gaps in asthma care and how, in many situations, it continues to fall short of its full potential.

It emphasizes that every individual with asthma should have access to evidence-based preventive treatments, especially inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), as a standard part of care.

Governments are urged to prioritize respiratory health, ensuring ICS medications are included on essential drug lists and made affordable through subsidies or cost-reduction policies. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies and suppliers must collaborate to enhance the availability and accessibility of asthma medications, particularly in underserved regions.

The overarching goal is to ensure equitable care, improved health outcomes, and the protection of dignity and respect for all people living with asthma.

Breaking Down the Barriers

• Access to inhalers is still hampered by several major issues:

• Due to the high expense of medications, many patients are unable to obtain them.

• Since inhaled corticosteroids are often absent from supply chains, many countries' public health systems do not provide access to them.

• The differences between rescue inhalers and long-term preventive medicine are not correctly understood by patients or healthcare professionals.

• Despite being a successful treatment strategy, some societies mistakenly believe that using inhalers is a sign of weakness or dependence.

To overcome the obstacles that limit appropriate asthma care, public health organizations and asthma supporters employ a variety of educational initiatives in addition to updated guidelines.

This World Asthma Day, let us commit to breaking barriers — ensuring that every breath counts, and every patient, regardless of background, receives the life-saving inhaled therapy they deserve.

By Farhath Sulthana, M. Pharm

_MSM/DP