TY - JOUR
T1 - Essential medicines for COPD and asthma in low and middle-income countries
AU - Taghipour Bazargani, Y.
AU - de Boer, Anthonius
AU - Leufkens, Hubert G M
AU - Mantel-Teeuwisse, Aukje K
N1 - Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.
PY - 2014/12
Y1 - 2014/12
N2 - Access to medications for chronic disease management is limited in many low and middle-income countries (LMICs), resulting in suboptimal care and avoidable morbidity and mortality. We performed a survey of COPD and asthma medicines that appeared on the national essential medicines lists (NEMLs) of 32 LMICs. Nearly all countries (>90%) had assigned essential medicines for treatment of exacerbations and early stable disease stages, but not for steps 4 (22%) and 5 (6%) controlled asthma management. The number of treatment options was limited, with long-acting β2-agonists (LABA) and combination dosage forms being notably absent. Suboptimal availability of chronic respiratory disease medicines suggests that implementation of NEMLs is the main problem in clinical practice.
AB - Access to medications for chronic disease management is limited in many low and middle-income countries (LMICs), resulting in suboptimal care and avoidable morbidity and mortality. We performed a survey of COPD and asthma medicines that appeared on the national essential medicines lists (NEMLs) of 32 LMICs. Nearly all countries (>90%) had assigned essential medicines for treatment of exacerbations and early stable disease stages, but not for steps 4 (22%) and 5 (6%) controlled asthma management. The number of treatment options was limited, with long-acting β2-agonists (LABA) and combination dosage forms being notably absent. Suboptimal availability of chronic respiratory disease medicines suggests that implementation of NEMLs is the main problem in clinical practice.
U2 - 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2014-205249
DO - 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2014-205249
M3 - Article
C2 - 24590803
SN - 0040-6376
VL - 69
SP - 1149
EP - 1151
JO - Thorax
JF - Thorax
IS - 12
ER -