National Asthma Week 2026 infographic poster

During National Asthma Week, we’re continuing to promote the updated National Asthma Council (NAC) Australian Asthma Handbook guidelines, helping ensure health professionals, people with asthma, and their families and carers are aware of the latest changes.

The new guidelines recommend against prescribing treatment with as-needed short-acting beta₂ agonists (SABA) alone to manage asthma in adults and adolescents.   

Key messages include:

• Asthma guidelines have changed.
• Asthma is a chronic inflammatory condition.
• Using a blue puffer alone is not enough to manage your asthma.
• Treat the inflammation, not just the symptoms.
• Anti-inflammatory reliever (AIR) therapy is the recommended starting treatment for asthma.
• Maintenance-and-reliever therapy (MART) is recommended for patients who need maintenance treatment.