Dr Vassilis Vassiliou and Dr Christos Zipitis, from Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, have recently warned against the common use of drugs that help reducing asthma symptoms. In their article published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the two medical experts called on the European watchdog concerned with medicines. They expressed their worries about how the saleterol and formoterol drugs might lead to a raise in the number of severe asthma attacks.

"The US Food and Drug Administration warned in July last year that salmeterol may be associated with rare serious asthma episodes or asthma-related deaths and it is crucial the European Medicines Agency follow. While there is provision in the British Thoracic Society guidelines for LABA drugs to be discontinued if they are not deemed useful after a trial period, this is not being reinforced. It is critical that current evidence on asthma drugs is incorporated in clinical practice," the authors of the medical article stated.

The two drugs - saleterol and formoterol - that could bring about higher mortality rates in the range of asthmatics that commonly use them are known as Long-Acting Beta-Agonist drugs (LABA). Dr. Vassiliou and Dr. Zipitis claim that these drugs should not be recommended by physicians to so many patients, ad libitum, and always accompanied by inhaled steroids.

"We are seeing an increasingly worrying trend where chronic asthma sufferers, mainly children, are being treated solely by LABA drugs. LABA on its own is not safe and this monotherapy is neither supported by current evidence nor encouraged by the current British Thoracic Society guidelines," Dr. Vassilis Vassiliou argued.