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World COPD Day: Important to focus on lung health, says Padma Shri Dr Digambar Behera
On World COPD Day, Padma Shri Dr Digambar Behera said if a patient suffering from COPD gets infected with Covid, the chance of mortality increases, so it is important to focus on lung health
If a patient suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) gets infected with Covid-19, the chance of mortality increases. Even in light of Covid, COPD remains a leading cause of death and now it is more important to focus on lung health.
This was stated by Padma Shri recipient Dr Digambar Behera during a panel discussion on Wednesday. The discussion was organised by Zorgers Healthcare to raise awareness on World COPD Day.
Dr Behera said people should keep their lungs healthy by avoiding cigarettes, air pollution or occupational exposures and by staying active either through regular physical activity or pulmonary rehabilitation.
While speaking on the occasion, Dr Vishal Sharma and Dr Sunny Virdi, pulmonologists, said, “The main risk factors for COPD are tobacco smoking, atmospheric air pollution as well as indoor pollution due to smoke from biomass used for cooking. However, lifestyle changes like eating healthy, exercise and vaccination help cope with limitations created by the disease.”
“Smoking is suicide by instalments. There is a huge risk among COPD patients to get severe Covid infections as smoking leads to weakened immunity,” said another pulmonologist, Dr Suresh K Goyal.
Varun Gupta, founder, Zorgers, said, “Around 10-15% of our patients are COPD and these patients are in a high degree of need for non-invasive ventilation equipment likes Bipap, CPAP or Portable ventilators and many of them do require oxygenation as well where oxygen cylinder or concentrator is also required to keep them comfortable at home under the supervision of a nurse and a treating pulmonologist.”
Pulmonologists Dr Zafar Ahmed Iqbal and Dr Rahul Katyal were also present during the panel discussion.
