World Conference on COPD Patients

1. World Conference on COPD Patients María Victorina López Varela University of Montevideo Hospital Maciel Uruguay Rome, June 2009

2. http://www.platino-alat.org México Venezuela Brasil Colombia Colombia PLATINO Menezes Lancet 2005; 366:1875 PREPOCOL Chest 2008; 133:343 Chile Uruguay COPD: The Latin American Perspective PROYECTO LATINOAMERICANO DE INVESTIGACION EN OBSTRUCCION PULMONAR Cross-sectional multi-site study 5 LA cities Population-based Adults ≥ 40 years old 5571questionnaires 5315 spirometries post BD 758 COPD

3. Prevalent COPD: The Latin American Perspective

4. Risk factors : smoking biomass exposure COPD: The Latin American Perspective

5. Under and misdiagnosed COPD: The Latin American Perspective

6. Under and anaccurate treated COPD: The Latin American Perspective

7. Frequent exacerbations Un n ú Exacerbations are frequent in COPD patients and related to severity Montes de Oca M. et al Chest online COPD: The Latin American Perspective

8. Underuse of spirometry COPD: The Latin American Perspective

9. ALAT ALAT Educational Educational programs programs / / Courses Courses : : Primary care Primary care Pulmonologists Pulmonologists Awareness Awareness : : Campaigns Campaigns exist exist Patients Patients Associations Associations are are growing growing COPD: The Latin American Perspective What are we doing ?

10. Smoking bans and cessation programs

11. Conference Summary & Global Mandate GOALS • Presenting take-home-messages from workshops • Initiating new campaigns on • Increasing awareness (diagnosis, disease, treatment) • Smoking as a major cause • Smoking bans in public • Introducing the four letter abbreviation COPD to the public • White Paper: • Summarizing the findings of this congress and further actions,

12. Conference Summary & Global Mandate AWARENESS • Should be first step to fight COPD • Is low among public and physicians in most regions of the world • Public campaigns and events to inform about COPD have been successfully performed • Must be globally improved by government, health-care givers, patient organizations,

13. Conference Summary & Global Mandate SMOKING PREVENTION “Tobacco smoking is linked to COPD” • Tobacco smoking is one major cause to develop COPD • Anti-smoking-campaigns and smoking bans are needed to fight COPD • There are wide regions globally where smoking is increasing and not banned • Public smoking bans can positive influence smokers habit • Smoking cessation can be achieved

14. Conference Summary & Global Mandate DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT Regions with: • Lack of diagnosis • Lack of availability or unaffordability of treatment Prevention of COPD and screening measures to better diagnose disease should be emphasized Treatment has to be provided by government in areas, where medication is not available or too expensive for patients.