PERF, The Pulmonary Education and Research Foundation, is a small but vigorous non-profit foundation.  We are dedicated to providing help for those with chronic respiratory disease through education, research, and information.  We hope this newsletter is worthy of our efforts.

News and acknowledgements

• PERF sends greetings and thanks to Elise Straus and her “Puffins” support group at the Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.  Mary includes her greetings to these great people and will never forget the warm welcome she received from these folks in the “Banana (Brrrr!) Belt” of Alaska.
  
• Very special thanks also to Tetsuji Watanabe of Kamakura City in Japan for his continued support of PERF and the Second Wind.  He says the newsletter is “Great!  Super!  Or, “sugoii” in Japanese.”  We think that you are sugoii also, Tetsuji, and look forward to your next visit to the Harbor-UCLA area with your other Teijiin staff.  We hope to see you sooner in Stockholm.  
  
• Your editors Mary Burns, Drs. Rich Casaburi and Brian Tiep, as well as our Web Master Dr Janos Porszasz are all heading off Stockholm, Sweden early in September for the annual European Respiratory Society meeting.  We hope to come back with lots of new information to share with you. That is, most of us will be returning.  Mary will be going on to Connecticut for a few weeks, and is not due back to California until the middle of October.  Much of the September newsletter is already written but we hope to have the assistance of Peggy Walker, BS, RT in completing it, and the October issue.   
  
• Dr. Rich Casaburi will also be gone since he is already on a semi-Sabbatical.  Accompanied by his lovely wife he will travel on from Sweden to other pulmonary centers all over Europe, in addition to spending several weeks doing research in Holland.  While we won’t be seeing him again until early next year, we will stay in touch by e-mail.  We may even persuade him to start a foreign correspondent column.  How about it, Rich?

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Newsletter Renewal

Has been more than a year since we have last heard from you?  If so, you may have received a letter reminding you of this.  We will not bother you with an annoying second notice.  If we don’t hear from you, we will assume that you are not interested in receiving the Second Wind or that you download it from our web site.  We know that many hospitals, which have received the newsletter by mail, download it from our website at www.perf2ndwind.org.  If you want the newsletter mailed to you, but can’t afford it, we will be happy to continue sending it.  BUT we must hear from you to know that it isn’t getting tossed out with other junk mail!  If you have any questions feel free to call us at (310) 539-8390 

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PUBLIC HEALTH CDC Releases COPD Report

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report documenting a significant rise in the COPD mortality for women rising from 20.1/100,000 in 1980 to 56.7/100,000 in 2000.  The authors suggest that the rise in the COPD mortality for women reflects the increase in the number of women smoking that began in the 1940s. 

The report also suggests that COPD is underdiagnosed.  Currently 10 million Americans report having physician-diagnosed COPD.  However, CDC data suggest that 24 million adults have evidence of impaired lung function.

CDC MMWR Surveillance Summary, August 2, 2002

COPD Disease Surveillance 1971-2000

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/ss/ss5106.pdf

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That is the bad news.  The good news is that there is an increased awareness of this disease and the need for research and new treatments.  Keep reading the Second Wind for the latest information.  Until next month, stay well!

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