Next month, Children's Hospital workers will pull the 40-foot Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, a health van, beside a few Woodland Hills schools.

For the first time, the traveling medical unit will visit Rankin, Dickson and Ben Fairless intermediate schools to screen pupils for asthma.

The project is especially important to the district because a 2004 Children's Hospital health survey targeting local children indicates that one out of four Braddock youngsters has asthma.

Braddock is one of the communities Woodland Hills serves. In 2000, more than 800 Braddock residents were of age to attend Woodland Hills schools.

"I'm excited for the district," said David Johnston of the asthma project. Mr. Johnston is Woodland Hills director of pupil personnel services. He said the new program also will offer screening to older or younger siblings of the intermediate pupils.

Incurable but treatable, asthma in the United States, and around the world, is escalating at an alarming rate, according to health officials. Figures from the World Health Organization show that 100 million to 150 million people around the earth have asthma. WHO also says that, in this century, asthma-related deaths have reached more than 180,000 a year.

Those leading the Children's Hospital project say the cause of the upsurge in Braddock and abroad has yet to be determined. Still, in the United States, where the likelihood of death by asthma is less probable, one in 14 people live with asthma.

Further, among American children from infancy to 17, one in 10 has asthma, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And data from the 2004 health assessment commissioned by Children's Hospital indicates that among Pittsburghers, 138 per 1,000 children have the disease.

The survey consisted of 99 questions and went out to 14,694 households in Braddock, four Pittsburgh neighborhoods, Turtle Creek -- also a Woodland Hills community -- and Wilkinsburg. The response rate was 12.5 percent or 1,824 homes.

The study indicated that although children living in Turtle Creek have a lower incidence of asthma than Braddock youngsters, it is still higher than the national average. Nearly one in 7.6 Turtle Creek children has asthma.

As for medical care to quell asthma episodes, both Braddock and Turtle Creek families used the emergency room 7 percent of the time.

"We thought it was about time to do something about that in the community," said Dr. Jay Kolls, the pulmonology division chief for Children's Hospital and the main doctor on the asthma project.

Dr. Kolls said he has been interested in tackling health problems among urban children since he worked in New Orleans years ago.

He worked on a three-month project whose goal was to find how emergency room visits could be cut for asthma patients. At the time, Louisiana data showed that 35 percent of Medicaid expenditure was used in care for 10 percent of patients with asthma.

Ultimately, said Dr. Kolls, the screening and education project in New Orleans helped cut hospital visits by 50 percent.

Although the local asthma initiative is targeting only Woodland Hills schools, the program reflects the urgency and the enormity of the issue.

"It's a program that's supported by the Ronald McDonald House Charities, a global charity," said Children's Hospital respiratory therapist Cheryl Krause, who is managing the project locally.

Funding is through Highmark Inc., Children's Hospital and the local Ronald McDonald House. Cost was not available.

Mrs. Krause said local children with asthma often suffer inordinately for two reasons. One, they rarely visit a general practitioner for continued care.

The second reason probably feeds off the first: The youngsters who don't visit a doctor regularly are more likely not in ongoing treatment.

"There are kids out there who have asthma or reactive airway disease and they don't know they have it" because they haven't been diagnosed, said Mrs. Krause. And those who do know "often I see them sucking on an albuterol inhaler but they may not have controller medications."

Albuterol is the generic name for a medication that dilates bronchial passages and is often used during asthmatic crises.

The project will involve giving the more than 1,300 youngsters from the three intermediate schools questionnaires asking parents if their child:

Coughs or wheezes more than a couple of times per week; coughs during sleep more than a couple of times a month; coughs or wheezes during or after exercise; misses school frequently because of coughing or wheezing; has used an inhaler or other respiratory medication delivery system more than two times per week for asthma flare-ups?

Mrs. Krause said parents who answer two or more questions affirmatively will be asked to call 412-692-LUNG for help.

The mobile unit, which is an equipped clinic with two examining areas, then will travel from school to school to take on about a dozen children each day. By May, Dr. Kolls said, up to 60 children will have been screened and diagnosed.

Follow-up will include encouraging families to take their youngsters to see physicians often. After three to four months in the Ronald McDonald Care program, the children will be re-screened to see how well the disease is being managed.

Families who need help dealing with asthma triggers at home may call Heathy Home Resources, 412-431-4449, ext. 229.