Chandigarh gasps for air, 15% rise in asthma cases: Health Director

With a thick layer of smog enveloping the tricity, residents are complaining of redness in eyes and breathing issues. Smog, which is a mix of fog, smoke and air pollutants, predominantly affects eyes, nose and throat. It leads to coughing, wheezing and difficulty in breathing on a short-term basis. All of these health issues are being reported at Government Hospitals and private facilities of the tricity. There’s also escalation of symptoms in pre-existing patients of cardiovascular disease.

As per Director of Health Services Dr Suman Singh, “There is about 15 per cent rise in cases of asthma.” So patients with asthma or cardiovascular ailments would require inhalers.

Dr Amit Kumar Mandal, Director, Pulmonology, Sleep & Critical Care, in a private hospital, explains that the bad air quality can lead to worsening of existing lung conditions like COPD exacerbations and can affect lung function. He adds, “The pollutants in the air affect individuals who are active outdoors. Hence, such activities should be curtailed during these times.”

Sharing the trend in OPD patients at his hospital, Dr Mandal says, “Over the last seven to 10 days, we have observed our follow-up patients becoming more symptomatic, particularly with upper respiratory tract symptoms and increased breathlessness requiring nebulisation or oral steroids. We have also examined new patients with no past history of respiratory issue or disease. On an average, we have witnessed four to six new patients with above-mentioned symptoms. Also, there are existing patients reporting worsening of symptoms. There number in OPD is five to eight every day.”

Dr Suresh Kumar, Professor & Head of Department of Opthalmology in Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, reports that there is inflow of patients complaining of symptoms like watery eyes and redness, which are similar to conjunctivitis and eye allergies. “While it would be wrong to put them all in the bracket of cases due to smog or bad air quality, there’s no denying that there is an unusual rise in the number of such patients. To be honest, most patients with similar symptoms are high in number during summer than winter. So, there’s slight increase in regular OPD patients who are complaining about redness or eye allergy or watery eyes,” he explains.

Dr Kumar also highlights that most of the patients are those whose skin or body is prone to allergies due to poor air quality, change in weather and air pollutant in the environment. For such patients, it is advisable to take their regular medicine as long as air quality remains bad.

Dr SPS Grewal who runs an eye hospital in the city also shared that daily six to seven patients are coming to the hospital for the treatment of conjunctivitis or eye allergies. “It may or may not be due to smog, but best would be to avoid going out to reduce the possibility of falling prey to allergies,” he adds.

According to doctors from Ophthalmology and Pulmonary wards of range of hospitals in the tricity, even though the number of patients with breathing problem or eye allergies and pre-existing asthma or other cardiovascular conditions is on the rise, it certainly hasn’t reached a worrisome stage.