June 23 (Bloomberg) -- British singer Amy Winehouse, a Grammy winner for the song ``Rehab,'' is being treated for emphysema, a potentially deadly lung disease.

The 24-year-old ``has an early form of emphysema,'' Winehouse's U.K. publicist, Chris Goodman, said today in a telephone interview. ``It's totally reversible and she's responded well to treatment.''

Smoking is the most common cause of emphysema, in which air sacs in the lungs lose elasticity, according to the American Lung Association. That impairs the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, bringing on symptoms including shortness of breath and coughing. The damage is irreversible, the organization said.

It hasn't been decided whether Winehouse will be well enough to perform at the June 27 concert in London's Hyde Park to mark former South African President Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday or at the June 27-29 Glastonbury music festival, Goodman said. The singer won a Grammy award in February for her album ``Back to Black,'' on the label of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group.

Winehouse was in the London Clinic, a private hospital, Goodman said. He declined to comment on whether drug use had contributed to her illness. In February, the publicist said the singer had made progress during treatment at a rehabilitation clinic. Her father, Mitch Winehouse, was cited as telling the U.K.'s Sunday Mirror in an interview published yesterday that smoking crack cocaine contributed to his daughter's illness.

Emphysema treatments range from medication to lung transplantation. Most patients are older than 45, though the disease in younger people may be linked to the absence of a protective gene, the ALA said. Emphysema is among the chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, a group that is the fourth- biggest killer in the U.S. About half of all patients die within 10 years of diagnosis, according to Merck online medical library.

To contact the reporter on this story: Camilla Hall in London at chall24@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 23, 2008 08:48 EDT