Asthma is a serious global problem. People of all ages and medical services at many levels are affected by this chronic airway disorder. In 1993, the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) was initiated to develop a network of individuals, organizations and public health services for the dissemination of information regarding the pathophysiology, diagnostic procedures, classification of disease severity and treatment related to asthma1. The 2002 GINA report stated: “It is reasonable to expect that in most patients with asthma, control of the disease can and should be achieved and maintained”. Four years later the GINA report of 2006, to meet this challenge, changed the approach to asthma management, replacing severity with control as the focus. The control-driven approach was also the central issue in the guidelines of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), released in 2007 in the USA2. The variables used for the classification of severity have now become the variables for assessing the control of the disease. How important have the above changes been? Which are the new control variables? How do they affect the perspective and the treatment rationale of patients?