More US children see doctors for asthma - CDC

WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) More US children are seeing doctors for asthma, although already-low death rates from the condition have fallen even more, according to statistics from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2005, 6.5 million children, or nearly 9 per cent of Americans under the age of 18, had asthma, according to the report released yesterday from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

Between 1999 and 2004, the death rate for asthma among children fell to 2.5 from 3.2 deaths per 1 million children, the study found.

In 2003, 4,055 people died from asthma but just 195 children did.

The number of asthma-related visits to the doctor rose to 89 visits per 1,000 children in 2004 from fewer than 40 visits per 1,000 in 1990.

Puerto Rican children were the most likely to have asthma, with more than 19 percent reporting the condition. More than 12 percent of black children had asthma in 2005.

Children missed a cumulative total of 12.8 million school days due to asthma, the survey found.

The CDC says that in 2005, 4.2 per cent of the entire U.S.

population, adults and children, had asthma. That works out to 12.2 million people.

Just over half said they had suffered an asthma attack in the past year.

REUTERS LL ND0956