In brief: Bronchial asthma – usually referred to simply as asthma – is a chronic respiratory disease. The term comes from Greek and means "tightness" or "wheezing".…more

Symptoms: Seizure-like shortness of breath is one of the typical symptoms of asthma. It is caused by a narrowing of the bronchi. In addition, there are often noises when breathing, such as whistling and humming. ...more

Prevalence: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Initiative for Asthma estimate the number of affected people at between 230 and 300 million. This makes asthma one of the most common diseases in the world. …more

Risk factors: Allergic asthma is a disease whose development has not yet been definitively clarified. There are, however, certain factors which, according to current scientific knowledge, contribute to its development. …more

Diagnosis: A description of the symptoms gives the doctor an initial clue for diagnosing the disease. In addition, there is a physical examination, a simple lung function test and allergy tests.

Therapy: Despite intensive research efforts, there is still no way to cure allergic asthma. Nevertheless, the disease usually responds well to drug treatment. …more

Research approaches: Numerous new findings have improved the understanding of asthma in recent years. And research efforts are being intensified. …more