Weekly Niue News http://www.niuenews.nu/ [2004-09-11: list updated for new site] _______________________________________________ > We have 7 guests online > Motufoou faces former educationalist Nuihepeni Togakilo.In > [date.gif] Friday, 29 April 2005 > Lung Disease Strikes Islanders > > Auckland health workers are worried about a potentially fatal > lung disease which strikes Pacific Island children at almost > five times the rate of the general juvenile population. > All but four of 140 youngsters being treated in the Auckland > region for bronchiectasis, or BX for short, are of Pacific or > Maori descent. > Researchers believe Pacific children have a one in 625 chance > of contracting the disease, compared with a general juvenile > rate of one in 3000. > This prompted Starship Children's Health to team with the new > Tamaki Primary Health Organisation over the school holidays to > take an educational "roadshow" to areas of high Polynesian > populations such as the Otara and Otahuhu markets. > Health workers say BX is relatively easy to treat if diagnosed > early enough, but causes irreversible damage and scarring to > breathing tubes and lungs when left unattended. > They say that if untreated, it will almost always result in > death from respiratory failure after several decades, and at > least eight children in the Starship are already believed to > be at the end-stage of the disease. > Starship clinical nurse specialist Lorraine Stevens said a key > message of the campaign was that parents and caregivers should > seek medical help for children who have been coughing daily > for more than six weeks. > Any such cough should be seen as abnormal, she said, and might > indicate underlying lung disease. > Bronchiectasis causes the lungs to make unusual amounts of > mucus, which get stuck in the breathing tubes, providing > fertile ground for germs to grow and cause infections. > The tubes become "baggy and floppy", and holes eventually form > in the lungs. [NZ Herald] > > > 43566 Visitors
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