KARACHI, Feb 7: Asthma is widely considered an epidemic in the world today - increasing at an alarming rate for all age groups, regardless of race, income and region of the country.

This was stated by Dr Ali Bin Sarwar Zubairi, Assistant Professor Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine, while speaking at Signs, Symptoms and Care - a monthly health-awareness programme held at Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) on Saturday.

Dr Zubairi said that although asthma often began in childhood, anyone could develop asthma at any age and was more common and more severe in large cities like Karachi.

"We do not know exactly what causes asthma to develop. However, we do know that the disease is linked to both inherited factors (genetics) and environmental factors, specially indoor and outdoor air pollutants and substances that set off allergy reactions (allergens)".

Dr Zubairi points out that each person's asthma is different. Some individuals may be sensitive to one allergy, others to a different one.

Indoor allergies such as those produced by house dust mites, cats, dogs and cockroaches, air pollution from road traffic and other factors like life-style changes, dietary habits and cigarette smoking both active and passive, account for the increase trend in asthma, he added.

Speaking on tobacco and its effects on lungs. Dr Mohammad Irfan, Consultant Pulmonologist at the AKUH said that tobacco was responsible for over 10,000 deaths in Pakistan every year.

He said out of the top 10 killers, seven were directly or indirectly associated with smoking. By the year 2025, 10 million people are expected to die from this addiction.

In his presentation, Dr Javed Husain, Consultant Pulmonologist and Critical Care specialist at the AKUH, said that infectious disease were the leading cause of death in the developing world triggering 45 per cent of all deaths and 55 per cent of deaths in children through respiratory infections, including tuberculosis.

Dr Hussain said that TB was a major threat to the developing countries causing more than two million deaths every year worldwide.

He was of the view that adequate and prompt treatment was the best way to control the rapid spread of TB. Some other methods to prevent TB spread are to cover the mouth when an affected person coughs, sneezes or talks. The risk of transmission decreases rapidly with the first two to four weeks of an adequate treatment. He added that quarantine was not necessary.

The panellists, Dr Fayyaz Hussain, Prof Javid A. Khan and Dr Nawal Salahuddin, gave explanation to the queries of the audience. - APP