Long-term conditions · 4 min read · Updated October 2026
Asthma: staying in control and what to do in an attack
Asthma should not stop anyone living fully. The right inhaler used the right way prevents most attacks, and knowing the danger signs saves lives.
Clinician review pending This article is awaiting sign-off by a doctor.
Asthma makes the airways tight and inflamed, causing wheeze, cough, chest tightness and breathlessness, often worse at night, with exercise, dust, smoke, cold air or infections. It is increasingly common in African cities, and most asthma deaths are preventable with proper treatment.
Two kinds of inhaler
A reliever (usually salbutamol, blue) opens the airways within minutes; use it when you have symptoms. A preventer (an inhaled steroid, often brown or orange) calms the inflammation and must be taken every day even when well. Needing your reliever more than twice a week means your asthma is not controlled and your preventer needs reviewing. Combination inhalers used both as preventer and reliever are now recommended for many adults.
Use it properly
Most inhalers are used wrongly. Shake, breathe out fully, seal your lips around the mouthpiece, press and breathe in slowly and deeply, hold for 10 seconds. A spacer (a plastic chamber) makes it much easier, especially for children; a clean 500 ml plastic bottle with a hole cut for the inhaler works if you cannot buy one. Rinse your mouth after a steroid inhaler.
Avoiding triggers
Keep your home free of smoke, including cooking smoke where possible. Wash bedding in hot water, keep pets out of the bedroom, and treat colds early. Get the influenza vaccine each year if available. Exercise is good for asthma: use your reliever 15 minutes before if needed.
When to seek help
See a doctor if you use your reliever more than twice a week, wake at night with symptoms, or have had an attack. Go to a hospital now if your reliever is not helping or wears off within 3 hours, you are too breathless to speak in full sentences, your lips or nails look blue or grey, or you feel exhausted or drowsy. While waiting: sit upright, stay calm, and take 4 to 10 puffs of the reliever through a spacer, one puff at a time, repeating every 20 minutes.
How Telafia can help
A doctor can check your inhaler technique on video, adjust your preventer, write a personal asthma action plan and prescribe inhalers for collection at a partner pharmacy.
Emergency numbers
767 works in Lagos State; 112 is the national number. Numbers change: please check locally. If a number does not connect, go straight to the nearest hospital.
Related doctors
Questions about this? A internal medicine doctor can help today.