Wendy Chen, MSW, Ruth Balaban, MA, RN, Varda Stanger, PhD, Ra’aya Haruvi, MSW, Shmuel Zur, MD and Arie Augarten, MD
Emanuel Lebenthal, MD and David Branski, MD
Eyal Gur, MD and Aharon Amir, MD
Shai Izraeli, MD and Gideon Rechavi, MD, PhD
Ido Wolf, MD and Rony Seger, PhD
Bella Bielorai, MD, Hana Golan, MD, Gideon Rechavi, MD, PhD and Amos Toren, MD
R. Finkelstein, MD, S. Edelstein, MD and G. Mahamid, MD
Tatiana Smolkin, MD, Imad R. Makhoul, MD, DSc and Polo Sujov, MD
Shabtai Varsano, MD
Asthma in Israel is a growing medical problem, affecting at least 7% of children and 3.7% of the total population. Mortality rates in the age group 5-34 years were on a rise between 1976 and 1990 but show a marked decrease in recent years, perhaps due to the sharp increase in sales of inhaled corticosteroids. There is also a recent indication that the relatively high crude mortality rate among women is declining (from 3.68 and 4.58 per 100,000 in 1997). In spite of better asthma education and management there is still a gap between available medical knowledge and medical therapy and its utilization for benefit of the asthmatic population in Israel.