Abstract:
I have had an interest in the control of asthma in children
since the early 1990’s. In those early years I documented, for
the first time in South Africa, the significant lack of asthma
and allergic rhinitis control in South African children.1-3
These studies suggest that, like surveys from the rest of
the world, asthma control is seriously under-estimated
and neglected in all asthmatics in South Africa, in both the
privileged and the under-privileged.
My research has a unique perspective, conferred by the
fact that atopic respiratory disease and HIV-related chest
illnesses, do not occur to the same extent anywhere else
in the world. Atopic respiratory conditions and HIV-related
lung diseases occur side by side in abundance in this region.
This perspective has created a clarity for research to address
the two most important aims in clinical medicine, namely
to diagnose correctly and then to manage the condition so
that control is achieved. These must be universal principles
of the successful practice of medicine.
