Journalists awarded for raising awareness of COPD, a devastating lung disease

Winners announced for “The Boehringer Ingelheim COPD Communication Award - Eloquium”

16 November 2005
Ingelheim/Germany, 16 November (World COPD Day, 2005) – Three journalists were recognised today for their achievements in raising awareness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is the fastest growing cause of death in the world’s advanced economies and projected to be the world’s third leading cause of death by 2020.1 Together with lung cancer and cardiovascular disease, COPD represents a major cause of death in smokers.2,3

The Boehringer Ingelheim Communication Award - Eloquium attracted a total of 69 submissions from 17 countries, including entries from Argentina, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Philippines, Portugal, Serbia and UK. Entries were judged by an independent panel comprised of international experts recognised for their achievements in the area of COPD and in healthcare journalism.*

The three winning entries of the Eloquium Award are:

* 1st: Rosalina Grilo, Portugal, Saúde Pública, More than 600,000 Portuguese people suffer from COPD
* 2nd: Michael Baggeler, Germany, Neue Welt, When air is in short supply, give the lungs a chance to breathe deeply again
* 3rd: Riwa Al-Atrash, Lebanon, Future TV, Alam Al-Sabah, Sohtak, Overviews on COPD

“Globally, half of people with COPD are currently undiagnosed, which poses a substantial public health problem,” commented Leonardo Fabbri, Chair of the Judging Panel and Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Italy. “But still the number of people who know about the disease is low. This is why the media play a crucial role in raising awareness and educating the public about COPD. The entries for this year’s Eloquium Award did exactly that, which is a very good start.”

COPD is a progressive respiratory disease that causes significant deterioration of lung function resulting in breathlessness, activity limitation and disability associated with the disease.4 Early diagnosis and treatment can greatly improve quality of life for COPD patients, yet many are unaware they even have the disease.5 It has been estimated that up to 50% of Americans and 75% of Europeans with COPD are undiagnosed.5,6

For their outstanding contributions to COPD reporting, each winner receives a travel voucher. Eloquium is a communication award that is sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim. Since 2003, it has been awarded to three winners each year.

Notes to Editors:
*Judging Panel for the Boehringer Ingelheim COPD Communication Award Eloquium 2005

* Professor Joudy Bahous
Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Department at the St. Georges Hospital Achrafieh, Lebanon
* Professor Leonardo Fabbri
Chair of the Judging Panel and Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Italy
* Professor Christoph Fasel
Professor for Media & Communication Management at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Medien in Calw, Germany
* Jenny Hope
Medical Correspondent, Daily Mail, UK
* Susanna Palkonen
Executive Officer, European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations, Belgium
* Patricia Reaney
Health Correspondent, Reuters, UK

Boehringer Ingelheim
The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 144 affiliates in 45 countries and nearly 36,000 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.

In 2004, Boehringer Ingelheim posted net sales of 8.2 billion euro while spending nearly one fifth of net sales in its largest business segment Prescription Medicines on research and development.

***

References:
1 Murray CJL, Lopez AD. Eds. The Global Burden of Disease: a comprehensive assessment of mortality and disability from diseases, injuries, and risk factors in 1990 and projected to 2020. Cambridge; Harvard University Press; 1996.
2 Pauwels RA and Rabe KF. Burden and clinical features of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Lancet. 2004;364:613-20.
3 Ezzati M and Lopez AD. Estimates of global mortality attributable to smoking in 2000. Lancet. 2003 Sep 13;362(9387):847-52.
4 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management and Prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease NHLBI/WHO Workshop Report. National Institute of Health; 2005. Available at http://www.goldcopd.com.
5 Rudolf M. The reality of drug use in COPD: The European Perspective. Chest 2000; 117:29S-32S
6 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Surveillance Summaries, August 2, 2002. MMWR 2002:51 (No SS-6); 1

Contact Information

Ute E. Schmidt

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH

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