AAFA supports efforts to prevent asthma and allergies from developing and worsening the health of Americans, as well as to improve asthma treatment, management and control. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Asthma Control Program is vital to asthma education, prevention and research. Since 1999, millions of Americans have benefited from the program and asthma mortality rates have decreased by more than 45 percent. The program needs funding to continue to be effective within our communities as it works to decrease the number of emergency visits, hospitalizations and deaths caused by asthma each year. It’s important for researchers to track the prevalence and severity of asthma across the United States. By studying asthma rates in different parts of the country, we can learn more about the condition, including:This process of tracking and recording asthma data is called asthma surveillance. Asthma surveillance is an important part of the National Asthma Control Program and other programs that aim to improve asthma prevention, care, management and treatment. One example of asthma surveillance in a state comes from California Breathing, an organization within the California Department of Public Health's Environmental Health Investigations Branch. See California Breathing's detailed asthma data for each county in the state of California. TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT KIDS WITH ASTHMA: