In observance of World Asthma Day the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness along with its partners, ZAP Asthma, Health Education Awareness and Research on Tobacco Coalition and the Georgia Department of Human Resources will introduce “TEACH,” a new asthma initiative to reduce asthma in Atlanta-Fulton County schools, homes and neighborhoods. The mission of the initiative is to raise public awareness about the disease while helpingto reduce the rate of children who suffer as a result of asthma related complications.

Dr. Steven Katkowsky, the Director of the Department of Health and Wellness said, “There is an agreement among doctors, family members and individuals with asthma that the single most important thing has been the education they have received about the disease. That includes knowing what their medications are, what they are for, how and when to take them and when it is necessary to seek medical assistance.”

The initiative exists thanks to vision of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. Led by District 5 Commissioner Emma I Darnell, the Board voted to allocate funds to the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness for the implementation of an asthma information campaign.
“This initiative in large part includes outreach, health promotion and those educational pieces that can make living with asthma much less scary to the patient and their families,” Dr. Katkowsky said.

For more information about the initiative, contact the Division of Populations Health at the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness at (404) 730-1005 or at (404) 730-1243.

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