Children's asthma and the third world: an approach.

Background: More than a million visits/year characterize acute asthma morbidity at Venezuela's (24 million inhabitants) Ministry of Health ambulatory services, caring for 80% or more of the population; acute morbidity from asthma is second to "viral syndrome" but ahead of diarrhea and other diseases. These acute episodes are the only contact of a poor asthmatic child with this health care system and portray the prevailing approach focused around acute care: to be reversed, a simple cost/effective program ought to be implemented during these acute asthma visits. Since convenience of administration is a key factor in compliance, a pilot study to explore the efficacy of budesonide CFC 400 microg administered on a once-a-day basis for adherence was carried out within a naturalistic real-world design.