KARACHI, March 6: Speakers at a seminar expressed concern over the increase in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases in the country and highlighted effective diagnostic and management approaches.

The seminar, titled “Helping the breathless”, was organised by the Pakistan Chest Society, Sindh, at a hotel here on Wednesday. A number of chest physicians, postgraduate students and senior doctors from across the province attended the programme.

The vice-chancellor of Dow University of Health Sciences, Professor Masood Hameed Khan, who was the chief guest at the seminar, said that non-communicable diseases were sweeping the entire globe. Asthma and the chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases share the major burden of non-communicable respiratory diseases, he said. The chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases was expected to become the third most common cause of mortality in the world by the year 2020, he said, adding that tobacco remained the most important avoidable risk.

Dr Nadeem Rizvi, the head of chest medicine department in Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, said that asthma was under-diagnosed and under-treated across the globe, particularly in the less developed countries such as Pakistan. He also discussed the failure of controller and reliever drugs in achieving an optimal control of asthma episodes.

Professor Javed Khan, a chest physician at the Aga Khan University, said that about 100 million people had died from tobacco-associated diseases in the world. Though tobacco consumption was decreasing in most of the developed countries it was otherwise around in the developing countries where it was increasing by about 3.4 per cent annually, he mentioned.He also expressed the view that tobacco exacerbated the conditions of people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and asthma. The Pakistan Chest Society published the guidelines for the management of asthma and pulmonary diseases in particular context of Pakistan, he added.

Dr Mosavir Ansari said that both asthma and obstructive pulmonary diseases patients presented with similar complaints and they were sometimes misdiagnosed.

Dr Altaf Ahmed said that acute exacerbation of breathlessness was usually caused by infections.

The problems of asthma in pregnant women were discussed by Dr Mohammad Hussain. Dr Sohail Akhter and Dr Nisar Rao also spoke at the seminar.

Dr Zeenat Ayub, Dr Iqbal Pirzada, Dr Riaz Shah, Dr Rashid Ahmad, Dr Tajammul and Dr Saifullah Baig were among the participants.

At the end, Dr Shahina Qayyum, the Pakistan Chest Society Sindh chapter’s general secretary, presented the vote of thanks.