Dr Kerryn Phelps, Health Editor, with Steve Leibmann, Channel Nine, 'Today'

PHELPS: Good morning, Steve.

LEIBMANN: I would have thought, you know, given all the publicity asthma has received in recent years, that everybody would know about managing the disease.

PHELPS: Well, people know about managing it, whether they actually take it seriously as a potentially life threatening disease is another issue, and I think that people are so used to hearing about asthma, everybody knows somebody with asthma, most families have somebody with asthma, that they think, 'well, it's such a common disease', they don't necessarily take it as seriously as they ought to.

LEIBMANN: So, who's at fault? Is it the sufferer? Is it the medical profession? Is it a combination of both?

PHELPS: I don't know that anyone is at fault. I think that there has been a great deal of effort going into education. I think to an extent people do become complacent with their asthma management. They think 'well look, if I can just grab my puffer, and I only need to use it a couple of times a week, or few times a day, then, you know, I can cope with that, maybe I only get woken up every so often with the asthma'. Now, if asthmatics ask themselves a list of questions…

LEIBMANN: That are on the screen now.

PHELPS: Yes. Do I have frequent attacks? Do I need my reliever more than three times a week? Am I being woken at night more than once in the past month? Am I prevented from doing what I want to do, because of asthma, whatever that might be? Have I lost time at school or work? Now, a lot of asthmatics don't have an asthma management plan.

LEIBMANN: Okay, so what sort of plan, what are we talking about?

PHELPS: Well, that's something they need to sit down with and, in partnership, work out with their doctor. How their asthma is going. What they need to do in case they get a certain number of symptoms. And if those symptoms occur, then these are the puffers you use, either the reliever or the preventer. See, a lot of people don't even know that if they're using their puffer a couple of times during the day, that there is a long acting reliever that you can use now, that'll last for twelve hours.

LEIBMANN Oh, right. Okay.

PHELPS: It'll mean that they don't wake up during the night, that they don't have to take it when they're exercising during the day, that they don't need to get caught short without their reliever in their pocket. So, there are a whole range of new treatments, so if you haven't seen your doctor for a year or so…

LEIBMANN: Come up with a strategy…

PHELPS: Sit down with your doctor, come up with a plan, know what to do, and know when you're getting into trouble, because we hade one in ten asthmatics had to go to hospital last year because they lost control of their asthma, and things got to a point where it developed into an emergency.

LEIBMANN: Alright. A male contraceptive?

PHELPS: Well, this is really an interesting. This subject comes up from time to time, and I think that there is one way of looking at it, I mean we don't have a male contraceptive that's reversible yet.

LEIBMANN: In the meantime, as a nation we have probably more vasectomies than any other country in the world.

PHELPS: I know, we do have a very high acceptance of vasectomy in Australia, but the Medical Journal of Australia, in this current edition, has an interesting survey, which has shown that between a half and three quarters of Australian men, who were surveyed in the post natal wards, so you have to take that into context…

LEIBMANN: Yeah…

PHELPS: That they have just had a baby, have said that they would try a male hormonal contraceptive. Now, they were asked if they would take a pill every day, have an injection once every three months, or an injection once every two years, and the majority said that they would be prepared to try a pill once a day.

LEIBMANN: So, tell me this, why would you try a male contraceptive pill rather than vasectomy, because vasectomy is permanent?

PHELPS: Vasectomy is permanent. What we're needing, I think the big revolution in contraception in the last century was reversible female contraception. But what that did was put most of the load on the women, where as previously it was much more of a shared decision making process. Now, it tends to be the woman goes on the pill, and the man doesn't have to worry about it…

LEIBMANN: It's quite an interesting social phenomenon, that men are prepared to share that responsibility.

PHELPS: Yes. If it's available, they're saying that they are prepared to share, and interestingly a lot has to do with their partner's attitude to the contraception, and whether the women would consider whether that would be a good thing for their partnership. So, I think it's interesting that the attitude is there, I think that it does indicate that if the research heads in the direction of male hormone contraception, then something that is safe and reliable is developed, that men would be prepared to give it a shot.

LEIBMANN: Alright. We'll have to leave the link between ecstasy and brain damage for another day.

PHELPS: We will.

LEIBMANN: Good to see you. Thanks Kerryn.

Ends