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Air pollution causing rise in Asthma cases in Hyderabad

The increasing air pollution and dust put the number of allergic asthmatic patients high in urban populace of Hyderabad and there is the need of formation of effective strategy in controlling air pollution. BY MUHAMMAD UMAR WEDNESDAY 11 MAY 2011 Eminent Pulmonologist and Head of the Department of Pulmonology, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Jamshoro Dr. Rashid Ahmed Khan expressed his concern over increasing allergic asthmatic disease in Hyderabad in an interview with this scribe on Friday. He said that smoke of increasing number of new and unfit vehicles as well as dust, rising because of development work, were the main reasons for increasing allergic asthmatic among the residents of urban localities. About symptoms, he informed that an attack may begin gradually; resulting in increasing respiratory distress and it could also begin dramatically with the onset of severe multiple symptoms such as tightness in the chest, difficulties in breathing and coughing. Feelings of suffocation and difficulty in speaking could also occur, he added. He said that asthma attacks occur when the bronchi and bronchioles become inflamed, reducing the space through which air can travel through the lungs and this causes the asthmatic to work harder to move air in and out of the lungs. Dr. Rashid Ahmed said frequency of asthma attacks varies considerably among asthma patients and some people have daily attacks, while others can go months or even years without having an attack. He said that asthma also occurs among those people who do not have allergies and in these persons, chemical irritants trigger an inflammatory response that is

initiated in a different way than in allergen-triggered asthma and for example, some people are sensitive to certain common chemical irritants, such as perfume, hairspray, cosmetics, and household cleaners, added.