Asthma still a leading disease among African-American children
Children all around the country are now settled into their new classes for the school year and have begun to tackle the challenges that school brings however, in this new school year and new fall season, the challenge of staying healthy is not to be overlooked by children or their parents.
Asthma continues to plague African-American children at much higher rates than their white counterparts, with 4.5 million African-American children suffering with asthma, according to a 2010 report from the Office of Minority Health of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
These children are 3.6 times more likely to visit the emergency room for asthma than Caucasian children, and health officials believe that preventative measures can be taken to avoid such a high rate of emergency room visits and asthma-related deaths.
Brooklyn-based physician Gary Jean-Baptiste, M.D., spoke to AmNews about why there may be such a disparity between African-American children and their counterparts and what parents can do to help their children with asthma.
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