A dangerous habit, man with oxygen tank and the story of India’s toxic air

In this, the third part, we bring you the story of a nation’s toxic air, a dangerous habit and a man being slowly claimed by a disease killing more Indians than ever before

More than 34 years, as India’s economy extended and prospered, Raj Iyer was progressing, going in any event 14 days a month as an expert with not-for-profit and government organizations.

His vagrant, satisfying life changed 11 years back when he more than once felt shy of breath and was in the long run determined to have interminable obstructive aspiratory malady (COPD), which had crippled his lungs and his capacity to relax.

Smoking 60 cigarettes every day for a long time was most likely the prompt reason, albeit compounding air pollution may have assumed a job. “I realized my manifestations were of a respiratory sickness however I didn’t have any acquaintance with it was COPD,” said Iyer. “I surely didn’t have even an inkling how terrible it gets or that it is hopeless.”

Today, Iyer is 69, and his once far reaching life has contracted to a room in his home in Bengaluru’s eastern Pai Layout, where he lives with his essential guardians, his 34-year-old child and 27-year-old little girl in-law, whose lives, as we clarify later, are surrounded by his sickness. “When I initially got hitched (in 2012), his COPD was not as awful, and he didn’t require ceaseless oxygen support,” said Antara Karthikeyan, Iyer’s little girl in-law and a kindergarten educator.

As the COPD advanced, Iyer required oxygen support, various hospitalisations in light of shortness of breath brought about by abnormal amounts of carbon dioxide- – which is harmful to the body and collects when COPD influences capacity of the lungs to oust carbon dioxide- – and fell much of the time because of his debilitating bones…

Fighting tuberculosis: Why other states should follow Telangana and Andhra

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have thousands of unqualified traditional practitioners who mainly work within communities and wield trust among them

Health News: In May 2016, 14-year-old Yesu from Vijayawada city was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB). The diagnosis came about thanks to the ‘Little Doctors’ Club’ in his school, which is among 139 such health clubs being run in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana by World Vision India, a non-profit organisation, in collaboration with the respective State TB offices.

Part of World Vision India’s Focused Approach towards Childhood Tuberculosis (FACT) project, these health clubs have engaged nearly 50,000 children. High school students from class 6 upwards are taught to identify symptoms of TB–weight loss, cough prolonged over two weeks, and fever. The awareness thus created is expected to enhance TB case detection and treatment success rates in schools and communities.

When the health club at Yesu’s school suspected he had TB, he was referred to a government hospital for further tests. Once confirmed, Yesu informed his mother–the family’s involvement being crucial to ensuring that the tough and long treatment regime is completed–and his peers, as part of the programme’s effort to reduce the stigma associated with TB.

Read More: Tuberculosis

TB remains world’s deadliest infectious disease: WHO

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the world’s deadliest infectious disease although global efforts have averted an estimated 54 million tuberculosis (TB) deaths since 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.

BS | WHO, in its latest 2018 Global TB Report, says countries are still not doing enough to end TB by 2030 and calls for an unprecedented mobilization of national and international commitments. It urges for decisive action from nearly 50 heads of state and government who are expected to gather next week for the first-ever UN High-level Meeting on TB, Xinhua news agency reported.

The report finds that overall, TB deaths have decreased over the past year, with an estimated 10 million people having developed TB and 1.6 million deaths, including among 300,000 HIV-positive people, in 2017. The number of new cases is falling by two percent per year.

However, underreporting and under-diagnosis of TB cases remains a major challenge. Of the 10 million people who fell ill with TB in 2017, only 6.4 million were officially recorded by national reporting systems, leaving 3.6 million people undiagnosed, or detected but not reported.

Ten countries accounted for 80 percent of this gap, according to the report, with India, Indonesia and Nigeria topping the list. Less than half of the estimated one million children with TB were reported in 2017, making it a much higher gap in detection than that in adults.

>>Thank You<<

Toxic air to blame for lung cancer; no longer just a smoker’s disease

Currently, lung cancer is responsible for five deaths per 1,000 in India and seven per 1,000 in Delhi

Smokers and non-smokers now represent an equal number of lung cancer patients, according to a study carried out by the Lung Care Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation focused on improving lung health in India.

An analysis of 150 patients at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), New Delhi, found that close to 50 per cent of patients with lung cancer–the type of cancer responsible for the highest number of cancer deaths nationwide–had never smoked, and yet had developed the pulmonary disease.

Health professionals in India now believe there is strong evidence that points to the role of air pollution in the increasing incidence of lung cancer amongst the young and female populations.

“This is the first time I have seen this 1:1 ratio of smokers to non-smokers suffering from lung cancer”, Arvind Kumar, chairman, centre for chest surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, told IndiaSpend. “Looking at this data, the obvious reason that comes to mind is air pollution, which contains smoke and PM 2.5.”

PM 2.5 is particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in size, or 30 times finer than a human hair, which, when inhaled deeply into the lungs is known to cause lung cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Outdoor pollution was classified as a cancer-causing agent in 2013 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a part of the World Health Organization.

News Source : BS