World's leading lung societies unite to call for improvements in health care

(Press-News.org) Contact information: Kristi Bruno
kbruno@chestnet.org
773-750-9962
American College of Chest Physicians
World's leading lung societies unite to call for improvements in health care Northbrook, Illinois, November 20, 2013. Experts from the world's leading lung organizations have come together for the first time to call for a worldwide effort to improve health-care policies and systems and care delivery to make a positive difference for the lung health of the world.

Produced by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), the report has been launched today, on World COPD Day, providing an overview of lung health across the globe.

Entitled Respiratory Diseases in the World: Realities of Today—Opportunities for Tomorrow, the report features five major disease areas that are of immediate and greatest concern. This includes COPD, which is the fourth-leading cause of death worldwide.

"This report aims to heighten awareness of lung disease throughout the world. We hope that this collaboration will help to shed light on the pervasiveness of these conditions and diseases and will be a call to action for health-care professionals, policy makers, patients, and advocates," said Michael H. Baumann, MD, MS, FCCP, President, American College of Chest Physicians.

Some of the key issues highlighted in this publication include the following:

COPD affects more than 200 million people and is the fourth-leading cause of death in the world. Asthma affects about 235 million people worldwide, is one of the most frequent reasons for hospital admissions among children, and leads to approximately 180,000 deaths each year. Respiratory infections account for over 4 million deaths annually, disproportionately in children, and are the leading cause of death in low-income or middle-income countries. TB kills around 1.4 million people with about 8.7 million new cases of TB annually. Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world, accounting for 13% of the total reported cancers and affecting over 1.6 million people annually.

### The complete report can be downloaded on the website of the American College of Chest Physicians: http://bit.ly/17MxV0S

About The Forum of International Respiratory Societies

Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) was established in 2001, with members coming from a number of international societies, including Asociación Latinoamericana del Thorax (ALAT), the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), the American Thoracic Society (ATS), the Asia Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), the European Respiratory Society (ERS), the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), and the Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS). The forum aims to promote advocacy in matters of global respiratory health and the identification of new areas for global initiatives.

About the American College of Chest Physicians

The American College of Chest Physicians is a global community of clinicians and allied health professionals working in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. The organization publishes the CHEST Journal and is recognized as a trusted provider of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and as a resource for advanced training through conferences and innovative live courses. Headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, CHEST represents more than 18,700 members from more than 100 countries.