Chennai: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a progressive and life-threatening disease snowballing into a major public health issue in India, has an estimated burden of 22 million in the country, which, according to experts is much lower than the actual burden attributed to low disease awareness and lack of early diagnosis.
Experts claim that 25 per cent to 50 per cent of people with clinically significant COPD are ignorant about it. The disease, which is now considered the fifth deadliest disease, used to be one identified as the ‘smoker’s disease’. However, over time, it has been found that around 20 to 30 per cent of COPD patients are non-smokers and around 75 per cent of them are women.
With November being identified as COPD awareness month, doctors urge for more awareness to be created on the symptoms of the Pulmonary disease. “Repetitive exposure to cigarette smoke or smoke emitted from the cooking fire, can lead to COPD, which is known to have an insidious onset,” said Dr P. K. Thomas, chest physician, Apollo and Fortis Malar Hospital.
In urban India, 32 per cent households still use biomass stoves, 22 per cent use firewood, while 8 per cent use kerosene and the rest use cleaner fuels like liquid petroleum gas or natural gas. Biomass fuels like wood, animal dung cakes, crop residue, pose as great a risk as active smoking. Reportedly, an almost three-fold increase in the prevalence of COPD among women has been noticed. According to experts, this is on account of the fact that women and young girls, especially in rural areas, spend a greater time in the kitchen.
“The spirometer, used to check whether an individual has COPD, is one that is found to be least used in our country. Awareness should, therefore, be created to an extent wherein patients, who are suspicious of having the disease, request to be tested themselves,” added Dr Thomas. “The partially or completely irreversible disease ‘COPD’ has various symptoms, which include frequent cold, cough and fever. With the disease, an individual could also reach the extreme state wherein he becomes bedridden,” said Dr K. Sundar, a Pulmonologist, urging the public to be careful.
