Esther Begarano’s son was 11 months when asthma landed at the hospital. She did not know what caused her symptoms. She and her husband suspected that they had no asthma, but they were sown in the agricultural field near the family’s house.
Pesticide is A Contributor known to asthma It is commonly used in the place where Bejarano lives in the Imperial Valley in California, which is one of the main producers of the winter crops, intercepting two counties on the US-Mexico border. It also has the worst air pollution in the United States and is one of the highest childhood asthma emergency rooms in the state. California Public Health.
Bejarano learned how to manage the asthma of the 19 -year -old son Civic Comite del ValleRegional rights groups focused on the definition of environmental definitions of the Imperial Valley. The group trains the patient for appropriate asthma management, avoiding hospitalization and training to remove triggers at home. This process is so popular that Waiting lists are so popular that Bejarano said.
But the group Asthma Management Academy Nationwide programs and similar initiatives face the Trump administration’s bulk arrangement, cancellation of subsidies, and the budget cut of budget cuts by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Environment. Asthma experts are concerned that the cumulative impact of reduction can lead to more ER visits and death.,,, Especially for children and people in low-income communities-population Unbalanced In the disease.
Bezarano said, “Asthma is a preventive condition.” No one must die by asthma. “
Asthma can be prevented, so it is difficult to breathe and in severe cases, it can cause death if it is not treated quickly. Nearly 28 million people in the United States have asthma, and about 10 people still die from disease. American asthma and allergies.
The White House in May is A Budget proposal It will be Permanently shutter Already, the National asthma control program of Disease Control and Prevention Center. Federal Health Bureau april. It is not clear whether the parliament will approve the closure.
last year, program In order to help the local community in Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, 27 states have allocated $ 33.5 million in state initiatives. The funds are distributed as a subsidy cycle for four years, and during this period, the program receives a maximum of $ 725,000 every year.
Comite Civico Del Valle’s Academy of Southern California, Houston’s Clinical Workshop and Pennsylvania Allentown asthma Medical Education- The most challenging ranking It is one of the programs that have survived in this subsidy to live with asthma. The first year of the subsidy cycle is terminated on August 31, and it is not known whether the financing will continue.
According to the data, the CDC’s national asthma control program has had a significant impact. Agency Self -study The program has shown that the health care costs saves $ 71 for each dollar invested. The asthma mortality rate decreased by 44% in 1999 and in 2021. American Machine Association.
Anne Kelsey Lamb, director of local asthma management and preventive programs at Public Health Institute, said, “Losing the support of CDC will have a fatal impact on the nation’s asthma programs. That’s why that’s so destructive. “
The Trump administration cited cost reduction and efficiency in the April HHS cuts. There was no answer to the White House and CDC’s federal asthma cuts and related programs.
Information war
Fresno, located in the center of the California Central Valley, is one of the 20 “asthma capital” with high asthma and related emergency mortality and high mortality. It is the home of the program that is funded through the National Asthma Control Program. Medical experts also rely on another aspect of the threat program, that is, nationwide data.
Federal asthma program Collect information It studies the prevalence and mortality rate of asthma speed and disease, provides tools to evaluate the state and regional trends, and evaluate the state and regional trends. Asthma educators and medical service providers are worried that the loss of this number can be the biggest impact of cuts. This is because there is a lack of important information in establishing educational recommendations and treatment plans.
“How do you justify the services we offer without data?” Graciela Anaya, a community health director in Central California’s Central California asthma, Fresno, said.
Mitchell Grayson, the chairman of the Medical Science Council of the Allergic Foundation, is also concerned.
“My fear is that we will live in the frozen world on January 19, 2025, because we know that this information was collected safely,” he said.
Grayson, an allergic expert in Columbus, Ohio, also said that the government website is worried that asthma patients will delete the important recommendations to avoid air pollution, receive annual flu, and get covid-19 vaccines.
Imbalance
Lynda Mitchell, the CEO of asthma and allergies, said that the “historical structural problem” is likely to live near public housing, highway and other pollutants, with asthma due to “historical structural problems.”
Other experts in the field said that the diversity initiative cuts of federal institutions, combined with the rollback of environmental protection, will have a big impact on this dangerous population.
December, BIDEN administration I received almost $ 1.6 billion The EPA’s community change subsidy program helps to solve pollution and climate threats. The Trump administration moved to cut this fund in March. Subsidies are frozen Temporarily blocked It is part of A by the court Wider effort Trump EPA eliminates the aid for environmental definition programs throughout the agency.
National Institute of Health in 2023 and 2024 Climate change and health initiative We received $ 40 million for research, including the connection between asthma and climate change. The Trump administration has I moved to cut off That money. And A March memo In essence, all NIH subsidies, which focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, depend on operations by many asthma programs that provide services to low -income communities.
In addition to these cuts, environmental advisors such as ISABEL González Whitaker of Memphis, Tennessee Suggestions Regulation of environmental regulations will already harm the health of the community, such as her, who is already crying from the influence of climate change. Memphis’s hometown, Shelby County I received “f”. Annuality of the American Machine Association Report card There are too many ozone days. González Whitaker is the director of Ecomadres, a program of a national organization for clean air, advocating better environmental conditions for the Latin community.
González Whitaker, who took his 12 -year -old son to the hospital for the first time this year, said, “The urgent asthma demand of the community is not enough when we see the situation worsening in terms of deregulation. I’m talking. “
It is a region called Bombay Beach, which surrounds California’s Imperial Valley (the majority of the working class population, Salton Sea, California’s largest lake). Bezarano calls this a “forgotten community.” The house lacks clean running water Natural arsenic In groundwater, residents often experience the same smell of rotten eggs that blow and expose a dried lake. Decades of insecticide soil.
2022, A 12 -year -old girl is dead In spring beach after asthma attack. Bejarano later found that the girl’s school recommended that he would recommend participating in the Civico Del Valle’s home asthma education program. She said she was on the waiting list when the girl died.
“I touched the house. Her death showed the personal needs we are here in the Imperial County.” “Death can be prevented. Asthma is reversible. If there is asthma, you should be able to live a healthy life.”
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