CDC's National Asthma Control Program (NACP) was created in 1999 to help the millions of people with asthma in the United States gain control over their disease. The program's goals include reducing the number of deaths, hospitalizations, emergency department visits, school days or workdays missed, and limitations on activity due to asthma. The NACP funds states, cities, school programs, and non-government organizations to help them improve surveillance of asthma, train health professionals, educate individuals with asthma and their families, and explain asthma to the public. The program has improved asthma treatment, management, and control in the U.S. The NACP collects data on state-specific levels to focus efforts and resources where they are needed. CDC's funded programs have improved the quality of asthma care, improved asthma management in schools, and fostered policies to help reduce air pollution. CDC's National Asthma Control Program plays a critical role in helping America breathe easier by learning more about asthma and how to control it. Four thousand people die each year from asthma-related causes, and asthmas is a contributing factor in another 7,000 deaths every year. In asthma, something - air pollution, allergens, exercise, stress, certain chemicals in the workplace - causes the airways of the lungs to narrow or become blocked, making it hard to breathe. For the most part we don't know why some people have asthma and other do not - although we're getting closer every day - but thanks to the work of medical researchers, health care professionals, and public health specialists, we're doing more to help people with the disease alleviate some of their burden. But the burden of asthma falls not only on individuals with asthma. It also falls on our schools, our families, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our cities, and our states. It falls on our health care system. It falls on all Americans, whether or not we have asthma, because we pay for that burden with higher health insurance rates, with lost productivity, and with our tax dollars. The CDC National Asthma Control Program funds states, cities, and school programs to help them improve surveillance of asthma, train health professionals, educate individuals with asthma and their families, and explain asthmas to the public. To maintain that progress, CDC and its federal, state, local, and nonprofit partners must continue the vital work of tracking asthma, enhancing the capacity of federal, state and local public health offices; training health practitioners and educators; implementing proven interventions; filling in gaps in research; and increasing the American people's understanding of asthma. As part of a joint, coordinated effort, these people, programs, and policies can alleviate the burden of asthma and keep America breathing easier.