About 1 in 10 people in Australia suffer from asthma, and in 2014, asthma caused the deaths of 419 Australians. It's good news that asthma deaths have dropped significantly over the years, from a peak of 964 in 1989, but more than one person a day dying from asthma in this country is still too many.

Asthma deaths are largely preventable. While asthma can't be cured, its symptoms of wheeze, cough and breathlessness can be prevented. The drop in asthma deaths and in emergency hospital visits for asthma are due to the ongoing education of health care professionals, people with asthma and the general community on the latest evidence-based treatments for asthma management. We need your help to support our work and help people with asthma lead full active lives without asthma symptoms.

Who are we and what do we do?

The National Asthma Council Australia was launched in 1990, in response to the high number of asthma-related deaths at that time. As the leading authority on asthma in Australia, our ongoing priorities are to:

• Continue to update and make available tools such as the Australian Asthma Handbook, the national treatment guidelines for asthma.
• Provide the latest information on asthma to health professionals to help improve their quality of care
• Ensure that people with asthma have access to the latest and best information on asthma
• Work with all members of the asthma community, including people with asthma and their carers, health professionals, patient support organizations, the health industry, and government agencies to improve all aspects of asthma care
• Continue to set the standards for best-practice asthma management.