Every parent can remember his or her child’s first step, first word, first day of school.
Part of being a parent is relishing those firsts, right from the first breath. Somewhere along the line though for
thousands of Canadian children, continuing to draw breath is a problem. If you have ever tried to get enough
breath into your lungs and couldn’t, then you know the panic and exhaustion experienced by an asthma
sufferer. Imagine how terrifying the feeling must be for a child. Controlling the symptoms is now a little easier
thanks to QVAR™ (beclomethasone dipropionate), the first choice for childhood asthma.
3M Pharmaceuticals has received a Paediatric Indication from Health Canada for QVAR™
Inhalation Aerosol and it is now available by prescription. It couldn’t be coming at a better time as asthma
rates among children soar. In Canada, the Asthma Society estimates one in every ten or as many as one in every
seven children under the age of 12, have asthma. According to Statistics Canada, asthma is the leading cause of
hospital admissions among children. Alarmingly, in Canada and the United States, five children die from asthma
every single week.
In order to treat asthma effectively, medication must get to all areas of the lung, not just the
large airways. Almost three quarters of the lungs are made up of small airways that are less than 2 mm in
diameter. In children, a greater proportion of the child’s lungs are comprised of small airways so getting
medication to those airways is critical.
That’s what makes QVAR the first and best choice for children. QVAR (beclomethasone
dipropionate) is an inhaled corticosteroid for the treatment of asthma. QVAR works by getting to those small
airways with the corticosteroids. Its small particle size allows for more delivery of the drug to the lungs. This
also minimizes the amount of drug that is deposited in the mouth and throat where it is not needed allowing more
of it to get to the lungs.
QVAR is helping smaller airways take bigger breaths and helping parents breathe easier in the process.
