Air pollution due to smoke from chulha and angithies, metal dust from machines in factories, and dust from stone cutting in Aravalis is leading to poor lung health among people in and around Faridabad. Individuals directly exposed to these pollutants are particularly at risk of severe lung disease, according to experts at Amrita Hospital. Doctors say they are seeing alarmingly poor lung health among people in the region, with many of them coming with advanced stage of lung disease after ignoring symptoms for years.

Women’s health is not given high priority

Said Dr. Arjun Khanna, Head, Dept. of Pulmonary Medicine, Amrita Hospital, Sector-88, Faridabad: “Women in villages in Faridabad and rural areas around Delhi are still cooking food on traditional chulha or angithis, which cause significant smoke pollution. They don’t realize that this smoke is even more dangerous than cigarette smoke and gets inhaled in large quantity daily. Even a few years of daily exposure to chulha smoke causes as much lung damage as someone smoking cigarettes for 30 years. Due to this, we are seeing large number of young women patients in their 30s and 40s suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a condition typically found in elderly cigarette smokers who have been smoking for decades. Many of these women are from well-to-do families in villages, but they still prefer to use chulha that burns wood or animal dung. This is an old kitchen tradition they find hard to break even when cooking gas is available.”

He added: “In India, neither lung disease nor women’s health are given high priority, and people tend to overlook symptoms for years. When exposed to chulha smoke, the situation becomes much worse. Treatment of COPD is not very difficult. Some basic medicines, breathing exercises, and avoiding smoke can make one’s life return to normal, even though the disease cannot be reversed.”

Also Read: Healthy lungs : Very crucial to fight against infectious disease. 

Pollution from industrial activity in the city

Faridabad is the biggest industrial town in Delhi-NCR. Direct exposure to pollution from industrial activity in the city is also causing poor lung health among people. Said Dr. Sourabh Pahuja, Consultant, Dept. of Pulmonary Medicine, Amrita Hospital, Sector-88, Faridabad: “Workers in industries are constantly getting exposed to pollutants and substances they work with, such as metal dust, leading to occupational lung diseases like asbestosis and silicosis. Faridabad falls in the Aravali range, with stone-crushing and stone-cutting as an industry. Stone dust is inhaled by these workers every day due to lack of protective equipment. Many people from factories and stone-crushers are coming to us, suffering from lung disease due to long-term exposure to pollutants at workplace.”

Also Read: Impact of air pollution on health and life – reduces life expectancy by 8 years.

The doctors said that another challenge is the reluctance of people in rural areas to allow children suffering from asthma to use pumps or nebulizers. “Asthmatic young children studying in school are not allowed to use pumps or nebulizers by parents due to fears that it will become a lifelong habit and hamper their marriage prospects. This is a deep social prejudice in rural and semi-urban areas that needs to be tackled,” said Dr. Sourabh Pahuja.

The post Pollution leads to poor lung health among people in and around Faridabad region appeared first on Health Vision.

25 September, World Lung Day (WLD),is a day for lung health encouragement and exploit a prospect for all to unite and endorse better lung health worldwide. People are suffering respiratory infections from a very long period and will remain to be a foremost cause of human suffering and death.

Virus, bacteria, fungi and other organisms can infect respiratory system and cause infections which interfere the normal breathing causing common cold, sinusitis, pharyngitis, epiglottitis, laryngotracheitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children and in the elderly. Nearly 80 percent of deaths are in children under 2 years and adults above 65 years.  Majority of demises occur in low and middle-income nations.

Every year approximately there are 10 million new patients of  Tuberculosis (TB) and 1.5 million deaths. Deaths from TB happen typically in children below 5 years and adults in the 20-35 year age array. Above 95 % of TB deaths happen in low – and middle-income nations. COVID-19 is one among viral respiratory infection that has posh over 25 million people in the world and approximately 860,000 have expired by the start of September 2020.

Patients experience persistent respiratory symptoms

The burden is likely to increase exponentially in the near future. Apart from the initial morbidity and mortality, recently long term consequences are also being increasingly recognized. The degree and cruelty of the long term respiratory problems of covid-19 infection remain to be seen, but evolving statistics specify that many patients experience tenacious respiratory signs for months their initial illness. As per a recent study, 3-months after discharge, residual abnormalities of pulmonary function were observed in 25.45% of the cohort, mostly demonstrated diffusion reductions in DLCO.

It is necessary to follow up these patients, performing comprehensive assessment and early rehabilitation exercise for detection and appropriate management of any persistent or emerging long-term sequelae of COVID-19. Pulmonary rehabilitation takes a central seat in the management of post Covid lung fibrosis and is available only at handful of centres across the city.

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) has proved helpful in reducing symptom, physiological and psychosocial for chronic respiratory patients. It is a standard of care alongside other well-established treatments (such as pharmacotherapy, supplemental oxygen, or noninvasive ventilation) for patients with a chronic respiratory disease.

Patients with a chronic respiratory disease.

Case 1: Mr. Ajay (Name changed) a 69 years old gentleman, diagnosed with Covid-19 was medically managed for 16 days and discharged from the hospital with continuous oxygen support of 4 litres/minute. Since he was on supplementary Oxygen support and was dependent on his family members even for basic self-care activities like bathing and dressing up. He could not even bend forward to pick anything from floor and even walking within the room was a tedious task. He started looking for a post Covid rehab facility and got re-admitted for Comprehensive Pulmonary Rehabilitation programme at Sakra World Hospital.

He had issues in carrying out conversations due to breathlessness, making him dependent on supplemental oxygen. When he enrolled for the pulmonary rehabilitation, he expressed his concerns about not being able to spend quality time with his grandchildren & other family members. While undergoing comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation, he was gradually weaned off from oxygen, his respiratory system improved and he showed significant improvement in his exercise tolerance.

His 6 minute walk test distance (6MWT – standardized measure for functional capacity) improved from 170 metres at 4L/minute supplemental oxygen to 230 metres without any oxygen support. He regained the ability to independently do all activities of daily living and did not require oxygen support at all.  He thoroughly enjoyed the yoga therapy sessions and was highly motivated to further continue rehab sessions on outpatient basis. He has shown great improvement in his overall quality of life and self-esteem and is committed to return to life to enjoy all that life offers.

Case 2: Mr. Sanjay (Name changed), a 68 year old gentleman from Mumbai learned about our programme and has enrolled for home based rehabilitation through video consultations. He was admitted in the ICU and was there for almost 18 days. He developed Pulmonary Fibrosis as a sequel to Covid infection and was on continuous oxygen support at 5-8L/minute. Any change in position even on the bed resulted in a drop in oxygen levels.

He had feeling of chest tightness and was unable to sleep normally and had to be on a reclined position throughout in order to breathe comfortably. He was unable to walk even to the washroom and was using a commode chair next to his bed. He was emotionally low and was scared of total dependency as the days passed.

Case 3: Mr. Karthik (Name changed) a 47 year old gentleman had generalized weakness, loss of muscle mass and was not able to resume his office work due to Oxygen dependency. He enrolled for a home based rehabilitation through video consultations along with once a week centre based (OPD) rehabilitation.

He was dependent on his family to climb stairs at his home to reach his bedroom as the Oxygen levels would drop, making him breathless. Training through the systematic protocols, he learned energy conservation techniques and gained better breathing control to cope up with his challenges. He is now independently climbing stairs and is determined to reclaim life.

Dr. Sachin Kumar, Senior Consultant
Pulmonology & Critical Care Medicine,
Sakra World Hospital, Bengaluru

The post WORLD LUNG DAY – RESPIRATORY INFECTION appeared first on Health Vision.