KARACHI, June 19: Medical experts at a seminar on Saturday observed that a dramatic surge in the incidence of asthma was witnessed in Karachi-based children, as in a span of four years (1998 to 2002) the disease incidence rose from seven per cent to 20 per cent among 13 and 14 years old kids.
They said that the growing trend of adopting western lifestyles was the main reason of high prevalence of asthma in Karachi.
The experts were speaking at a seminar on "Burden of Asthma", organized by the Pakistan Chest Society at a local hotel to create awareness among patients, general public and doctors on management of asthma.
Mentioning that asthma is a chronic disease, they said that it could be managed so well that asthmatic patient could lead a normal life. They advised general public and asthmatic patients that they could prevent asthma by keeping pets away from bedrooms or from house, avoiding use of households carrying house dust mites, no smoking especially in front of children, keeping pollen away and avoiding use of fast fragrances.
In his address, Dr Tipu Sultan of Karachi University said that 300 million people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds were suffering from asthma in the world and there might be an additional 100 million persons with asthma by the year 2025.
He said that the increase in health budget was meagre and the allocated health budget was also not being used to facilitate poor patients.
In this scenario, he said, "Such Continuous Medical Education (CME) programme must be organized on regular basis." He appreciated the role of Pakistan Chest Society towards creating awareness about hazards of tobacco and precautionary measures of various diseases.
In his paper on "Burden of Disease-A: global perspective", Dr Nadeem Rizvi of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre observed that prevalence of asthma had increased 20 per cent to 50 per cent in the last decade. It was estimated that asthma accounted for one in every 250 deaths globally, he said.
He emphasized the need to address preventable factors to control asthma including air pollution that triggered exacerbation of asthma.
According to Dr Nadeem Rizvi, asthma is under diagnosed and under treated worldwide and only less than 10 per cent patients are using inhalers. "There is a gap in asthma management which is basically due to patient ignorance," he added.
Addressing the issue of childhood asthma, Dr Jamal Raza said that number of hospital admissions of asthmatic children had increased up to 160 per cent in the last few years as children of smokers' family were likely to had episode of bronchial asthma. He cited inhalers as the standard treatment. But, he stressed that inhalers must not be applied without spacers among children. Acknowledging that spacers may be found expensive for many of the parents, he mentioned that application of plastic bottles as substitute for spacers was equally effective.
In his presentation on "Patho-physiology of asthma", Dr Hussain of Aga Khan University Hospital explained the changes in the air that lead to the symptoms of asthma and discussed various substances produced in body. He also discussed stages where production of these agents could be arrested.
Among others, Dr Mohammad Hussain and Dr Shaheena also spoke at the seminar.-PPI/APP
