**The Los Angeles Times (5/16, Maugh) "Science Now" blog reports, "The proportion of Americans with asthma increased from 7.3% in 2001 to 8.4% in 2010, marking the highest level ever, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this week." According to the blog post, "in 2010, an estimated 18.7 million adults and 7 million children had the disease -- one in every 12 Americans." The story quotes epidemiologist Christopher J. Portier of the CDC National Center for Environmental Health as saying, "A key component [of care] for adults and children is to create and follow an asthma action plan. Significantly, this analysis reveals that more than half of all children and more than two-thirds of adults with asthma do not have an individualized action plan. CDC encourages those with asthma to work with their doctors to take control of this disease."

**MedPage Today (5/16, Smith) notes that "in 2009, asthma accounted for 3,388 deaths, 479,300 hospital admissions, 1.9 million emergency department visits, and 8.9 million visits to doctors' offices." The article quotes Portier as saying that the findings are "a stark reminder that asthma continues to be a major public health concern" and that asthma has "a large financial impact on families, the nation, and our health care system." HealthDay (5/16, Preidt) provides similar coverage.