An asthma attack is a relatively short episode of breathing difficulties that happens to people with asthma when their airways become irritated and narrow. Air can get into the lungs, but as it passes into the narrowed, congested airways, it cannot easily get out.

The most common symptoms include:
• coughing
• wheezing
• breathlessness
• chest tightness

People who have asthma don’t experience all these symptoms all the time. Most of the time, people can go long periods without any symptoms or attacks. But even when they don’t have any symptoms, their airways can be inflamed.

The challenge for both patients and their doctors is to manage asthma by ideally preventing the symptoms from happening. And that means treating the inflammation.