GGA Asthma Guidelines and Their Implementation in Asia(GINA/GARD/APAACI Symposium)

Abstract

This is a symposium for people living in Asian countries to discuss about asthma guidelines employed in their countries, and learn about strategies for their implementation in each Asian country participated in this symposium, i.e. China, Korea and Japan. The speakers will talk about their national guidelines and how to implement them in their countries. The Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD) is a voluntary alliance of national and international organizations, institutions and agencies with the goral to reduce the global burden of chronic respiratory diseases including asthma. It was launched in 2006 by Prof. Jean Bousquet and his international colleagues, and has been collaborating with the World Health Organization (WHO), which provides technical leadership and secretariat support. On the other hand, GARD supports WHO's work on the development and implementation of the chronic respiratory disease component of national action plans against noncommunicable diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Consequently, GARD supports the development and implementation of asthma guidelines in various countries including Asian countries where we live. Through this symposium, attendees will be able to know guidelines in the three Asian countries and strategies for their implementation. Moreover, the existence of global alliance, GARD, will be noted and the attendees will understand the significance of joining GARD for each society, including Japanese Society of Allergology. We wish that this would be the first step to concrete Asian Asthma Network through GARD to develop and maintain our collaborative relationship for good in order to improve prevention, control, morbidity and mortality of asthma in Asia. The contents of this symposium will be as follows: 1) Implementation of asthma guidelines in China by Gary W. Wong (Department of Pediatrics, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, China) 2) Implementation of asthma guidelines in Korea by a speaker to be announced 3) Implementation of asthma guidelines in Japan by Ken Ohta 4) The roles of the GARD for implementation of international (GINA) or national guidelines by Jean Bousquet