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대한결핵및 호흡기학회

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About KATRD

Dramatic exacerbation of air pollution due to global warming, increase in the number of smokers, and the acceleration of industrialization are causing spikes in particulate matter concentrations which in turn lead to higher prevalence of chronic respiratory tract diseases such as COPD and a problematic increase in treatment resistance. Such a situation translates into massive economic and social losses. With the purpose of raising public awareness of the detrimental effect of chronic respiratory diseases on mankind, delivering the latest scientific information to physicians, seeking academic advances in the area of chronic respiratory diseases, and promoting mutual friendship among members, the Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease and the Korean Society of Allegology came to an agreement in 2006 to co-host a joint symposium annually.

The first joint symposium held in 2006 saw extensive discussions in both the clinical and research fields of chronic respiratory diseases. As could be deduced from the exchanges taking place during the symposium, chronic respiratory diseases like asthma or COPD have multiple environmental and genetic factors in play and thus require research and studies from various dimensions. Moreover, in clinically, treatment of chronic respiratory diseases was not so easy as well. Due to such reasons, there are active discussions taking place within the framework of Bronchial Asthma Study Group and COPD Study Group of the Korean Society of Allergology and the Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease. The second joint symposium in 2007 was subtitled Smoking and Respiratory Diseases and explored the effects of smoking on lung function and respiratory inflammation as well as on children’s respiratory tracts. The symposium was an excellent opportunity to raise public awareness on the effect of smoking and to share the social burden with those who are affected by drawing a more precise picture of how smoking affects respiratory inflammation and lung functions.

We hope that this joint symposium will contribute to lay the foundation of knowledge for COPD and also offer hope to patients with chronic airway disease .