Venteze contains salbutamol, a reliever bronchodilator that opens narrowed airways within minutes. It relieves asthma symptoms — wheeze, breathlessness, chest tightness and cough — and is used in COPD. Needing it often means the underlying asthma is not controlled and requires review.
What is Venteze?
Venteze contains salbutamol, available in South Africa as a syrup (2 mg per 5 ml), tablets, an inhaler and nebuliser solution. It is a Schedule 2 or 3 medicine depending on the form, and the same ingredient is sold as Ventolin, Asthavent and Salbulin.
Salbutamol is a short-acting beta-2 agonist. Beta-2 receptors sit on the smooth muscle wrapped around the airways; stimulating them makes that muscle relax, so the airway widens and air moves more freely. The effect begins within about five minutes and lasts four to six hours.
That is why it is called a reliever. It treats the symptom — the muscle spasm narrowing the airway — quickly and effectively.
What it does not do is treat asthma. Asthma is fundamentally an inflammatory disease: the airway lining is chronically inflamed, swollen and over-reactive, and that inflammation is what makes the muscle spasm in the first place. Salbutamol relaxes the muscle and leaves the inflammation untouched.
Treating the inflammation is the job of a preventer — an inhaled corticosteroid, taken every day whether or not you have symptoms. That distinction between reliever and preventer is the single most important thing to understand about asthma treatment, and it is covered below.
The inhaler is generally preferred to the syrup or tablets. Inhaled salbutamol goes straight to the airways in a small amount; swallowed salbutamol travels through the whole body, causing far more tremor and palpitations for the same effect on the lungs.
What is Venteze commonly used for?
- Relieving asthma symptoms — wheeze, breathlessness, chest tightness and cough.
- Asthma attacks, as the immediate treatment.
- Exercise-induced asthma, taken before activity.
- COPD, for breathlessness and wheeze.
- Bronchospasm from other causes.
- Croup and wheezy episodes in children, in some circumstances.
How often you need it is the key measurement
Using a reliever more than twice a week — other than before exercise — means the asthma is not controlled. That is a recognised threshold, and it is worth acting on.
Someone using a reliever daily, or getting through inhalers quickly, is not treating their asthma. They are repeatedly relieving symptoms produced by inflammation nobody is treating — and that pattern is associated with severe attacks and with asthma deaths.
The answer is usually a preventer inhaler, or a review of one already prescribed. Preventers work over days to weeks and produce no immediate sensation, which is exactly why people neglect them in favour of the inhaler that visibly works. Both are needed, and only one changes the disease.
If you are using Venteze often, book a review. Ask specifically whether you should be on a preventer, and have your inhaler technique checked — poor technique is extremely common and means much of the dose never reaches the lungs.
How Venteze fits into this medicine category
| Group | Examples | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Short-acting relievers | Salbutamol (Venteze, Ventolin) | Rapid symptom relief; minutes |
| Inhaled corticosteroid preventers | Budesonide, fluticasone, beclomethasone | Treat the inflammation; daily |
| Combination inhalers | Steroid plus long-acting bronchodilator | Preventer and long-acting relief together |
| Oral corticosteroids | Prednisone, prednisolone (Aspelone) | Short courses for attacks |
| Antihistamines | Cetirizine (Austell Cetirizine) | Allergy, not asthma |
Note the last row: antihistamines do not treat asthma and are not a substitute for an inhaler. See the allergy, cold and flu medicines hub.
What to check before using Venteze
Have your inhaler technique checked, and ask about a spacer. A spacer substantially increases how much medicine reaches the lungs and is recommended for everyone, not only children.
Know your asthma action plan — what to do when symptoms worsen, and when to seek help. If you do not have one, ask for one.
Never run out. Always have a working reliever available, and check the expiry.
Tell your prescriber or pharmacist if:
- You have a heart condition, a rhythm problem, or angina.
- You have high blood pressure.
- You have an overactive thyroid.
- You have diabetes — salbutamol can raise blood sugar, particularly in high doses.
- You have low potassium, or take a diuretic — high-dose salbutamol lowers potassium.
- You are pregnant or breastfeeding. Treating asthma well in pregnancy is important; uncontrolled asthma is the greater risk.
- You are using more than one inhaler a month, or your usual dose is not lasting as long.
- The medicine is for a child — syrup is dosed by weight, though an inhaler with a spacer is usually preferred.
Follow the pack instructions. This page does not set doses.
Possible cautions and when to ask a pharmacist or doctor
Tremor, palpitations and feeling shaky are the commonest effects, and are more pronounced with the syrup or tablets than the inhaler. They are not dangerous at normal doses and usually settle.
Increasing reliever use is a warning sign, not a solution. Needing more, or finding it does not last as long as it used to, means the asthma is deteriorating — that is the moment to seek review, not to simply use more.
Do not rely on it during an attack that is not responding. If your symptoms are not improving after the doses in your action plan, or you cannot complete a sentence, get emergency help.
Do not stop a preventer because you feel well. Feeling well is what a working preventer produces.
Avoid known triggers where you can, and if you smoke, stopping does more for asthma and COPD than any medicine.
Seek emergency help for breathlessness that does not improve after using your reliever as directed; difficulty speaking in full sentences; lips or fingertips turning blue; drowsiness, confusion or exhaustion with breathlessness; a silent chest; or a child who is struggling to breathe, feeding poorly or unusually drowsy. Do not wait to see whether it settles.
Related medicine guides
Frequently asked questions
What is Venteze used for? Relieving asthma symptoms — wheeze, breathlessness, chest tightness and cough — and breathlessness in COPD. It contains salbutamol.
Is it a preventer or a reliever? A reliever. It opens narrowed airways within minutes but does nothing about the underlying inflammation, which a preventer inhaler treats.
How often should I need it? More than twice a week, other than before exercise, means the asthma is not controlled and needs review.
Is the syrup as good as the inhaler? An inhaler is generally preferred. Inhaled salbutamol reaches the airways directly in a small amount; swallowed salbutamol causes far more tremor and palpitations.
Why does it make me shaky? Salbutamol stimulates beta receptors elsewhere in the body as well as in the airways. It is not dangerous at normal doses and usually settles.
When should I get emergency help? If breathlessness does not improve after using your reliever as directed, if you cannot speak in full sentences, or if lips or fingertips turn blue.