1 week Ago By Shariq Majeed
Ludhiana: With air in the industrial city thick with fumes for the last five days, hospitals have reported a rise in cases of respiratory distress, said doctors. Dr Gurpreet Singh, a city-based pulmonary medicine specialist, said that he received 110 such cases in two days. According to him, 30% to 40% of the patients were elderly and around 15% were adolescents reporting with symptoms like excessive cough, breathing issues and itchy eyes.
The doctor observed that the symptoms were aggravated in patients who already had asthma (which is more common in children, teenagers and younger adults) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, which is commonly seen in elderly people). Dr Akashdeep Singh, professor and head, department of respiratory medicine, DMCH confirmed the increase in respiratory distress cases . He noted that these patients could be classified into three categories.
Those in the first category had minimal symptoms, which were resolved after pollution levels fell. The second category comprised patients who were already facing respiratory issues, for which they were using inhalers etc and whose symptoms were aggravated by exposure to pollution. The third category comprised patients with severe respiratory ailments.
“If air pollution continues, 5% to 15% of patients in the second category will need hospitalisation and 25% to 30% of patients with severe respiratory ailments will require hospitalisation,” he said. Authorities in the civil hospital also reported increase in the number of patients with respiratory issues. SMO (senior medical officer), civil hospital, Dr Harpreet Singh said that there has been roughly 10% increase in the number of patients with respiratory problems caused by prevailing conditions.
He added that the patients mostly included the elderly and children. However, he said that no one had been admitted so far. The child specialists say that they are witnessing many such patients due to smoggy conditions.
Dr Naveen Bajaj, a city-based child specialist, said that he examined 60 patients with respiratory issues caused by high pollution levels in the last four days. Saying that he examined 15 patients on Thursday, he observed that such patients had breathing difficulty, cough, nasal congestion and cough during sleep etc. “These patients have to be given bronchodilators and anti-allergic medicines,” said the specialist.
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