In the academic environment, allergic diseases and other health-related deficiencies, have been reported to have a consequential impact on students’ daily activities, especially at schools. This often led to school absenteeism, reduced engagement in school activities like sports, loss of concentration, poor academic performance including stigmatization and social isolation are among the outcomes ( 3 ). It was reported that asthmatic attacks among students cause above 13 million loss of school days per year ( 3 ). According to a research, children who had at least 1 asthma crisis in the preceding academic calendar missed about 12.8 million school days because of asthma ( 1 ). Frequent absenteeism could also compromise the development and acquisition of new knowledge and skills.

The burden of asthma seems not to be evenly distributed among population, as children of cheap socioeconomic condition living in cities often have higher morbidity ( 3 ). Inaccessibility to healthcare could also make them to be undiagnosed. Asthmarelated hospitalizations, morbidity and mortality have been on the increase, especially in Afroamerican asthmatic adolescent ( 2 ).

Although, the causes of this high frequencies have not been established, but environmental factors, poor or lack of self-management of asthma, sparse knowledge of asthma, and mediocre social support could be contributing factors ( 2 ).

According to Sin et al ( 2 ), many asthmatic adolescents usually have poor management behaviors. They were often reluctant in seeking assistance at the first sign of a breathing problem, simply because they wanted to be self-sufficient. According to a research, only few of the adolescent involved in the survey swing to action by stopping playing and take caution when they started having difficulty in breathing. Therefore, asthmatic adolescent need sufficient knowledge on managing asthma, how to communicate with healthcare providers for appropriate management or preventing an asthma attack or crisis, and self-competence on disease self-management ( 2 ).

Based on our experience in the academic environment and dissecting hall, at least one out of 50 medical students are asthmatic. Nonetheless, being asthmatic should not stop one from pursing a dream career. The big challenge however could be when such career is embedded with trigger, allergy, or irritant. Either asthmatic or not, students usually find dissection hall inconducive, especially when it is saturated with the pungent or irritating smell of formaldehyde ( 5 ).

Asthma as an allergic and chronic disease can be triggered by many factors such as allergens, irritants, hormonal or neurogenic factors and stress ( 6 ). Inflammatory reaction and variable bronchospasm are its pathogenic characteristic symptoms while shortness of breath; cough with or without expectoration, wheezing and tightness of the chest are clinical characteristics ( 6 ). These symptoms can impede the students’ day to day activity, reduce productivity, and quality of life.

Formaldehyde (HCHO) which is a colorless, flammable, and highly soluble gas in water is often used as the chief embalming chemical (About 37% of the chemical in aqueous solution is called formalin) ( 5 ). One major characteristics of formaldehyde is the pungent smell or odor. The pernicious effects of exposure to formaldehyde are usually irritation of the upper respiratory tract mucosa, contact dermatitis and irritation of the eyes ( 5 ). Although, there is a wide variation as to extent of individuals reaction to the manifestation of irritation. However, accommodation of odor threshold and irritation of the conjunctivae is common. This kind of environment is what medical students have to face almost every week.

Instantaneous and unexpected attacks of difficulty in breathing, is one of the main characteristics of asthma which makes asthma attacks to be a persistent threat for asthmatics ( 7 ). Besides, the anticipated threat is often accompanied by anxiety. Increased muscle tension, accelerated breathing, sweating and chest tightness are the physiology correlates of anxiety. Cognitive correlates of anxiety are thought storms, difficulty in concentration, and disordered thinking ( 7 ). Moreover, anxiety and depression have also been linked with asthmatic pathology ( 8 ). According to Centanni et al ( 8 ), some studies have reported an increase in the prevalence of well-structured psychiatric disorders in asthmatic patients, while others have pinpointed psychological behavior characterized by anxious and depressive traits. Paying attention to and caring for the asthmatic medical students in the dissection hall will go a long way, peradventure such student rammed into crisis during a dissection session. This will help to prevent and relief these symptoms, including achieving a normal day to day activity and smooth dissecting experience ( 6 ).