MULTAN, May 09 (APP): Medical experts participated in a walk arranged in connection with World Asthma Day here on Tuesday.
The walk started from VC office of Nishtar Medical University (NMU) and concluded at Nishtar Tower.
The experts said, “People with asthma can prevent asthma attacks by learning how to avoid asthma triggers like tobacco smoke, mold, outdoor air pollution, cold and flu.”
Principal Nishtar Medical College (NMC) Prof. Dr Rashid Qamar Rao, Pro-VC Nishtar Medical University, Prof. Mehnaz Khakwani, MS Nishtar Hospital Dr Rao Amjad Ali, Dr Azam Mushtaq , the Head of Pulmonology department NMU and a large number of faculty members with medical students attended the walk.
Prof. Dr Azam Mushtaq said that asthma was a treatable disease. He declared different forms of inhaler as the best option to overcome the disease, “which was long-standing but not dangerous”.
Dr.Azam rejected the impression that the inhaler was the last treatment option as patients usually assume and thus were afraid to use it for curing the disease. “Its puffs go directly into the lungs sans affecting other body systems leaving minimum side effects,” he added.
“Inhaler must be continued for a longer period of time because asthma is an inflammatory disease and can be treated through proper care,” he said.
“Sometimes, the patient has no symptoms but the anti-inflammatory inhaler should be continued for a longer time intermittently”, he added.
MS Nishtar Hospital Dr Rao Amjad Ali said asthma attacks cause adults to miss work and children to be absent from school. It’s a life-threatening episode that reduces the quality of life for people with asthma. “The good news is that we can raise awareness about asthma and how it can be controlled,” he maintained.
Professor Mehnaz Khakwani and Dr Rao Qamar urged the patients to always move into a dust-free environment and wear masks regularly, particularly in threshing season. Threshing produces a lot of pollen allergens in the air which triggers asthma attacks.
In addition to a dust-free environment, avoid using perfume spray coupled with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin, they suggested.
World Asthma Day (WAD) is celebrated on the first Tuesday of May every year by the Global Initiative for Asthma, an organisation founded by the World Health Organization in collaboration with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA, to raise global awareness regarding asthma ó a condition in which a personís airways become inflamed, narrow and swell and produce extra mucus, making it difficult to breathe.
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