‘Respiratory and cardiac ailments on the rise among youths’

In accordance with the WHO, India accounts for one-fifth of the cardiorespiratory deaths taking place worldwide, especially in younger generation, says expert.

Deaths due to respiratory illness and cardiac ailments are on the rise, particularly among youngsters, said Dr BP Singh at the ‘Cardio Respicon Update-2022’, a conference on respiratory illness held on Sunday.

About 47 lakh deaths due to cardiac illness and 20 lakh due to respiratory illness are reported annually in India. (Pic for representation)

“In accordance with the WHO, India accounts for one-fifth of the cardiorespiratory deaths taking place worldwide, especially in younger generation. About 47 lakh deaths due to cardiac illness and 20 lakh due to respiratory illness are reported annually in India,” said Dr Singh, head of Midland Hospital.

He said there has been increase in number of patients with respiratory illness. Such cases were less during Covid pandemic and they are again on the rise as patients are ignoring basic principles of keeping safe from such illness, he added.

“One reason is such patients could not reach doctors (during pandemic) and they are now coming to hospitals, so their number went down earlier. Equally significant reason is that Covid made all of us follow utmost prevention while keeping indoors and now patients are not following this practice,” he said.

During scientific sessions, experts discussed various issues including similarities in symptoms of cardiac and respiratory illness. “Cough, chest pain and breathlessness are some of the common symptoms that happen in a patient of heart and also respiratory illness. We have dedicated a session to discuss how to quickly differentiate and identify the exact organ affected due to these (common) symptoms,” said Dr Singh.

“A large number of elderly patients often ignore respiratory illness which ultimately worsens their condition. Timely treatment is one factor for quality life,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors.

Dr Swapnik Pathak was the co-organising secretary of the conference.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sandeep Attawar of KIMS Hospital, said, India is conducting about 110 lung transplants per year while the need at present is about two lakh.

He said, “Over 4,600 lung transplants are performed worldwide of which 55% are performed in North America, and 36% in Europe, and approximately 80% are bilateral,” he said. The current median survival after a lung transplant is 6.2 years worldwide and if the patient survives first five years, the median survival is 8.3 years.