European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients' Associations

  NEWSLETTER September 2005

		Second Issue
		Launch of EFA's Fighting for Breath Severe Asthma Report at ERS EFA launched the results of the survey: Fighting for Breath - a European Patient's Perspective on Severe Asthmaat the ERS Congress in Copenhagen this month. .The first report of its kind, the report investigates and highlights the challenges and impact of severe asthma on people from across Europe. The report showed that at least 1.5 million Europeans with severe asthma are living in constant fear that an asthma attack will kill them and that a quarter have speech limiting attacks at least once a week. Report:http://www.efanet.org/activities/documents/Fighting_For_Breath.pdf Presentations: http://www.efanet.org/activities/documents/Fighting_For_Breath.pdf Report of launch (members only): http://www.efanet.org/members/EFAMeetingReportSASERS2005.rtf Oxygen supply for COPD patients travelling abroad On 1 September 2005, the Netherlands based Oxygen supply company, CARE 0², who organises various details involved in delivering medical oxygen released telephone numbers for oxygen supply across Europe and even on cruise ships. More information: www.oxygenworldwide.com Comment on the new EU Public Heath and Consumer Protection Programme The health industry wants the future EU health policy (see ezine 1/2005 issue) to focus on enhancing the competitiveness of the sector while NGOs wish to see bigger healthcare budgets. The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) has spoken to the press, expressing concerns that a joint programme for health and consumers may not be a good idea, as "the interests of individual consumers and the public well-being may sometimes conflict". Source: EurActiv.com, 31 August 2005 http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-143606-16&type=News&_lang=EN&email=49813 via ENSP Legislation on Paediatric medicine The use of unlicensed and off-label medicine for children is widespread and it has been of increasing concern in recent years. In the EU, fifty per cent or more of medicines used for children have never been actually studied in this population. The EU Pediatric Medicines Initiative was initiated 2000. A resolution was adopted by the European Parliament on 07 September 2005 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on Medicinal Products for Paediatric Use (you may recall the joint EFA/European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Position Paper on the Consultation on draft proposal by the Commission of the regulation in April 2004 -http://www.efanet.org/activities/documents/EFA-EAACIPositionPaperonPaediatricMedicines.doc). The main point of debate involved the best way to give incentives to pharmaceutical companies to invest more money in paediatric medicine. The Commission proposed that companies should have an extra six months of protection under existing patents. A number of Members wanted to have a shorter additional period or one which depended on the size of the company. The proposal has yet to be read by the European Council and we will keep you informed. Source: European Parliament website www.europarl.eu.int UK EU Presiency focuses on: Tackling Health Inequalities and Patient Safety Tackling health inequalities is a key health theme for the UK Presidency of the European Union, on 17-18 October, as well as key health determinants including nutrition, smoking and alcohol. http://europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph_determinants/socio_economics/events_socioeco_en.htm Patient safety is the focus of a EU UK Presidency Summit on 28-30 November 2005 and it will look at ways of bringing together information and best practice from across the European Union to make health care services and products safer for patients. http://www.regteam.com/lg/54/119633/fccd014fd197bb5a2793b7f36a4f9aa6 EEN sets its environmental priorities The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) Environment Network (EEN) held its second Annual General Meeting this month. This year's policy priorities were adopted and these include: children's environmental health, implementation of the EU Environment and Health Action Plan, chemicals and air quality. EFA looks forward to working with EEN on some of these very important issues. Source: www.env-health.org Learn more about the national anti-tobacco coaltion in your country The European Network for Smoking Prevention (ENSP) has released a report giving an overview of the main objectives, current activities, recent achievements and priorities for the future for each of the its National Coalitions Against Tobacco in Europe. These shows in clear terms what is being done at NGO to fight the tobacco epidemic across Europe in each individual country. If you are not yet a member of the coalition in your country, the report gives the necessary information http://www.ensp.org/files/national_coalition_partnership.pdf To Unsubscribe, please click here.
© 2005 EFA www.efanet.org