A four-year-old Hong Kong boy who died after his mother gave him two unprescribed herbal pills from mainland China was suffering from an asthma attack shortly before the incident, the Post has learned.
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The Post looks at how asthma affects children and what parents should do during an asthma attack.
1. What is childhood asthma?
Asthma is a disease in which a person’s air passages can become inflamed and narrowed.
But the causes of asthma could vary from person to person, depending on what age they first developed the condition, said Dr Herbert Kwok Wang-chun, a specialist in respiratory medicine.
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“For many patients with childhood asthma, the disease is often hereditary,” he said. “They also tend to have allergic asthma. They get other allergic reactions such as allergic rhinitis, eczema or allergies to certain medications or food.”
2. How is it different from asthma in adults?
For those who develop asthma as adults, there may be other factors, such as their age, weight and environment.