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A breath of relief for refugees with asthma


August 23, 2012
By Jane Yang
Photo: Jane Yang/IRC

Around the world, many people living with asthma have difficulty taking their medication using standard metered-dose inhalers. If the inhaler is not used properly, the medicine isn't released directly into the lungs where it is needed. 

Add-on devices called spacers are designed to make using inhalers easier and more effective. However, for many asthma patients in Kenya, these are prohibitively expensive, running 2,600 Kenyan shillings (more than $30 U.S.) each. 

Last October, International Rescue Committee pharmacist Erenius Ngelecha came up with a low cost and environmentally friendly alternative for his patients in the Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya,  modifying sanitized one-liter water bottles that would otherwise be thrown away as a spacer substitute. 

Within a few months, his innovative “spacer” (shown above) was being used by nearly 100 asthma patients in the camp. For them, the device is a breath of relief.
 

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