School intervention in asthma for adolescents: it is time to act.

Asthma is a public health problem that is responsible for significant symptomatology and in extreme cases, premature deaths among adolescents. Lack of knowledge of the disease contributes to both its morbidity and mortality. In this manuscript, we discuss school interventions in asthma, in particular their impacts on improving knowledge of the disease and their ability to both make the school environment safer and reduce morbidity indicators. These interventions have been successful when implemented in higher income countries. Thus, to address the lack of interventions in low and middle income countries, we present an example of an alternative asthma intervention in the school curriculum developed in South America. The model has been proven to be both feasible and relatively inexpensive. It is easily structured by utilizing the staff of the school itself and is capable of being adapted to other countries.