A special camp on lung disease was conducted by the Department of Pulmonary Medicine at Christian Medical College. The camp held on Wednesday revealed that 20 per cent of the 354 participants in an average age group of 35 years have lung abnormalities and obstruction in the airways.
Organised by a team of doctors, respiratory therapists and paramedics, the free camp was held to commemorate World Spirometry Day.
“The public initiative was to highlight the plight of a large and still unknown population who struggles with breathing due to lung diseases which are preventable,” said Dr D J Christopher, the head of pulmonary medicine department.
“Similar to blood pressure measurements that provides effective screening of cardiovascular disease, the spirometry results provide a chance to slow the disease before it completely ruins the lung function,” said Christopher. “By offering this test entirely free-of-cost, the CMC team had demonstrated its commitment into the importance of screening of lung diseases,” he added.
According to medical experts, most lung diseases are diagnosed late. The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is undiagnosed in 50 per cent and under diagnosed in other 25 per cent cases.
Spread of COPD may be as high as 3 per cent in women and 5 per cent in men while the spread of asthma is believed to be around 10 per cent. Smokers with abnormalities in their lung-functions were at a higher risk of developing lung cancer.