Relieving chronic breathlessness is a human right

Chronic breathlessness, defined as breathlessness that persists despite optimising the treatment of un­derlying causes, is recognised by recent international consensus as a distinct clinical syndrome. Across our communities, population-based studies of chronic breathlessness expose an enormous burden from this. Among the palliative care population, one in four people die with severe breathlessness despite treat­ment from a palliative care service. Recently, the relief of breathlessness was claimed to be a human right, particularly when there are treatments available to alleviate the unnecessary suffering caused by chronic breathlessness. The timely recognition of, and response to chronic breathlessness is a crucial clinical skill.