Standard case management of asthma in Sudan: a pilot project

A pilot project for asthma management in selected hospitals in Khartoum and Gezira States, Sudan.

To assess standard case management of asthma in 2007-2008.

Local adaptation of guidelines, followed by situational analysis, pre-intervention study, training and implementation. Treatment outcome was assessed 1 year after patient enrolment.

Situational analysis revealed that inhaled beclometasone was not available in the public sector. During the project, 2068 patients were enrolled: severity of asthma was intermittent in 185 (9.0%), mild persistent in 231 (11.2%), moderate persistent in 640 (31.0%), severe persistent in 812 (39.3%) and unclassified in 200 (9.7%). Of the 1654 patients with persistent asthma who were treated with inhaled corticosteroids, 1157 (70.0%) had treatment cards available for outcome assessment. Of these, 652 (56.4%) did not attend their annual evaluation, among whom 1 (0.1%) died and 651 (56.3%) were lost to follow-up. Of the 505 patients who attended their annual evaluation, 417 (82.6%) improved, 32 (6.3%) were stable and 56 (11.1%) were worse. The frequency of emergency visits and hospitalisation decreased substantially among those who presented for the 1 year follow-up assessment.

The results of standard case management of asthma were encouraging; however, a high proportion of patients did not return for long-term management.