Students Promote Asthma and Allergy Awareness in the South Bronx

NCPA chapter president Mohammed Taher (front row, center) and faculty adviser, Sweta Chawla, PharmD (second row center, in black), with pharmacy students.


By: Mohammed Taher, PharmD '09 and Frances Sycip, PharmD '09

On September 13th 2007, three Long Island University pharmacy student organizations, the National Community Pharmacy Association (NCPA), Lambda Kappa Sigma (LKS), and Phi Delta Chi (PDC), met at Prospect Avenue Pharmacy in the South Bronx to promote asthma and allergy awareness. The South Bronx is known to have the highest percentage of asthma among its residents, especially in the Hunts Point section, due to industrialization and traffic congestion, which contribute to the poor air quality.

We set up a table on the sidewalk, which was supervised by one of our professors, Dr. Sweta Chawlain, front of the pharmacy. The students provided free consultations to passersby and with asthma and/or allergy problems. We demonstrated for them how to use asthma treatment devices, such as inhalers and nebulizers, and assessed their asthma status by using the asthma control test. Several students walked to the corners to distribute asthma and allergy pamphlets to let people know about our informational booth for the day. Other students went to Montefiore Medical Center’s walk-in clinic to raise awareness about our booth and to demonstrate how to use the devices.

We encountered an overweight man who said he had difficulty breathing and felt like he had asthma. His breathing was so labored that he had to stop every couple of minutes to catch his breath. He explained that he had never been to a doctor to get a checkup because he had no insurance, and was lazy about dealing with the paperwork.

Dr. Chawla and I personally accompanied the man to a nearby clinic. With the assitance of the professionals there, the man was able to obtain free health insurance and scheduled an appointment. The teary-eyed man thanked us and said, “I thought nobody cared for me.” Our willingness to help convinced the man to take the next step towards taking better care of himself. This showed me how important it is to reach out to people and make the extra effort to provide personalized care.

During the course of the day, we learned that most patients with asthma were not controlling their disease correctly. In some cases, their medication regimens did not correspond to the severity of their disease state. In other cases, patients knew they had asthma or experienced severe breathing problems, but just did not take the time to be properly assessed by a doctor.

At the end of our asthma allergy event, a local physician, Dr. O’Brien, introduced himself to us and informed us about his own outreach programs with medical students. He proposed that we could collaborate on similar community health projects in the future. We look forward to working together.