The Problem of Asthma in DC

Washington, DC - OCTOBER 3: On the day Alauna Ulmer, 4, was diagnosed with asthma at the Children's Hospital, Dr. Stephen Teach, L, talks with Alauna's parents, mother Farisa Walsh and father Jeffery Ulmer (cq) about keeping the child's breathing air at home clean on Thursday, October 3, 2013, in Washington, DC. Mother Farisa Walsh also suffers from asthma and said that her sinus allergies have never been so severe as the time she has lived in the District. DC has one of the highest rates of pediatric asthma in the country - and rates are twice as high east of the Anacostia River as in Northwest, where the overwhelming majority of the asthma and allergy doctors are. So Children's Hospital, faced with high rates of asthma-related ER visits and hospitalizations, is stepping into the vacuum by doing one simple yet profound thing: taking time to teach families about asthma and showing kids how to regularly take their medicines rather than wait for an asthma attack to happen. Dr. Stephen Teach is an ER doctor, but runs the hospital's asthma clinic, called IMPACT DC (Improving Pediatric Asthma Care in the District of Columbia). Teach runs the program, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, because of disparities evident in the care of inner-city children with asthma. He said that not only are cases of asthma prevalent in the area of where southeast DC meets Prince George's County, but the cases are more severe. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)