The global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), launched in 1993, is a collaborative effort between the World Health Organisation (WHO), the National Institutes of Health USA (NIH), and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Its aims include; to increase public awareness of asthma, encourage research into the causes for the increasing prevalence of asthma worldwide, encourage research into the links between asthma and environmental factors, improve the effectiveness of asthma management practices, reduce the mortality and morbidity rates associated with asthma, and make treatments for asthma more readily available.