Asthma in children: View point from Indonesia

Abstract

A brief review on clinical, laboratory and skin test data of children with asthma obtained front several studies done in certain places of Indonesia has been presented. The data revealed that the prevalence of atopy ranged from 3,8% to 25.5% and the prevalence of asthma ranged from 3.7% to 16.4%. It seemed that the prevolence of allergic diseases is in the city. Respiratory allergy is the most common allergic disease in children. The proportion of asthma in males is greater than in females and the age of onset were mostly under 5 years old. Asthma in children, mostly showed positive family history of atopy and is frequently associated with other allergic diseases- Eosinophil count is usually increased in asthmatic children, but increased eosinophil hypodense to a percentage more than 20% was more frequent. Serum IgE level is frequently increased in children with asthma. The majority of children with asthma showed positive skin test and the three leading positive prick test were against house dust, animal epithelia and house dust mite. Positive prick test against house dust mite was correlated with positive RAST and negative prick test with negative RAST overall to a level of 77%. Without considering the presence of formula or solidfood, there was no significant correlation between duration of breast feeding and age of onset of asthma.