Meeting of children with asthma who participated in active holidays in Pacug

This summer, children with asthma joined other young holidaymakers at the holiday camp in Pacug. Over three separate sessions more than 60 children with asthma enjoyed their holidays and in an 11-day guided and specially adapted program learned about the disease and how to use preventive measures to avoid the factors which aggravate the status of the disease. “In cooperation with ultramarathon bicyclist Marko Baloh and our sponsors – Lek, a Sandoz company and BTC – we made it possible to partially reimburse the costs for twenty children for holidays in Pacug and thus allowed them to enjoy holidays which they otherwise could not have taken,” said Dr. Hosta.

How the children with asthma spent their active holidays

The active approach of the Asthma and Sports Association to the treatment of asthma includes kinesiotherapy, i.e. movement therapy. The children participate in morning and afternoon exercises every day, as well as measuring maximum exhalation airflow, and attend asthma school and daily maintenance swimming.

Otherwise, the children with asthma follow the same routine as the other children at the holiday camp, so they did not appear to be different. “This is extremely important, since in this way they maintain their social contacts and develop an understanding about chronic diseases among other children, who do not see their peers with asthma as patients,” says Dr. Hosta, who adds that these kinds of programs make a significant contribution to the development of respiratory and cardiovascular functional abilities and respiratory muscles, reduces the requrrence of the worsening of the disease, teach correct breathing and swimming techniques, increase the ability to overcome fatigue, strengthen the immune system, reduce stress and fear of the disease and improve their self-image and quality of life.

Asthma in Slovenia

Asthma is one of the most common chronic non-infectious diseases, which is characterized by specific and long-lasting infection of the respiratory tract. According to professional estimates the occurrence of asthma in Slovenia is 7-10%, while in children it appears in 14%, and approximately 5 percent of adults and 10 percent of children every year. Therefore family doctors have to pay special attention to prevention and timely detection of cases of asthma and the high-quality treatment of it. “Our goal is to make sure that asthma patients are as well informed, guided and treated as possible, so that they will be able to live normal lives, have jobs and be active in their spare time,” says Dr. Milan Hosta.

Little Eva, one of the holiday camp attendees, said this about receiving the donation: “Well Mom, now I can go to the seaside next year too.”