Millions of adolescents in Africa could be living unknowingly with asthma as cases go undiagnosed, researchers find.

Millions of adolescents across Africa may unknowingly be battling asthma because they have not received a diagnosis from a clinician and, therefore, are not receiving the necessary treatments, a new study has found.

Published last week in the research journal The Lancet, the study’s findings are critical for a continent that has produced little data about the scale of asthma despite the condition being one of the most common causes of chronic respiratory deaths on the continent.

Asthma, which affects the lungs and causes difficulties in breathing, often starts in childhood or adolescence. It is a condition that affects many adolescents worldwide with an estimated 76 million young adults suffering from it in 2019, according to the National Library of Medicine, part of the United States government.