KARACHI, May 25: Modern medical treatment has helped a majority of asthma patients to live a perfectly normal and healthy life, said the head of the department of Chest Medicine, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, on Wednesday.

He was speaking at a seminar organised by the department of Chest Medicine in JPMC in collaboration with the Pakistan Chest Society to mark World Asthma Day 2011.

The programme was largely attended by chest physicians, postgraduate students and senior doctors.

Prof Nadeem Rizvi in his presentation on “Management of Asthma” said that in a few cases it was difficult to manage asthma through routine therapy.

“In such cases poor compliance and aggravating factors like allergic rhinitis, occupational allergens, dietary and psychological factors should be considered,” he said.

Dr Mirza Saifullah Baig, consultant chest physician, in his presentation on “Global Asthma Burden” said that over 300 million people across the globe were suffering from asthma.

“The increase in global asthma prevalence is particularly due to increase in the number of asthma patients in underdeveloped countries, like Pakistan.

“Rampant urbanisation and adoption of western lifestyle have particularly increased the exposure of children and pregnant women to household allergens that spread by house dust mites, rodent and cockroaches, causing an increase in the number of asthma patients,” he said.

“Active and passive smoking by pregnant women is also an important contributory factor for its prevalence,” said Dr Baig.

Dr Nisar Rao, consultant chest physician at the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, said that asthma was under-diagnosed worldwide particularly in developing countries.

He pointed out that many of these patients were treated as a case of chest infection with repeated courses of antibiotics and cough syrups.

Dr Rao said it was not necessary that all asthma patients may experience shortness of breath.

“Even if cough occurs repeatedly particularly induced by change of weather one should suspect a possibility of asthma,” he said.

The senior chest physician said that a simple gauge called peak flow meter was required to make a confirmed diagnosis of asthma but 90 per cent of doctors diagnosing and treating asthma did not use it.

Prof Javid A. Khan, consultant chest physician at the Aga Khan University speaking on “Problem of Asthma Management in Pakistan”, said that one of the major problems in management of asthma was a lack of knowledge and understanding about the disease.

He criticised the way vaccine therapy was being used to treat patients with asthma and warned that these could be dangerous and as such, could not be routinely recommended.

Prof Suhail Akhter, consultant chest physician at the Ziauddin Medical University, spoke about update on management of asthma. He said that a step-wise approach in asthma management had improved the quality of life of many asthma patients.

Dr Akhter urged pharmaceutical companies to reduce the price of inhalers so that they could be in reach of poor patients.

Dr Shahina Qayyum, general secretary of the Pakistan Chest Society, offered a vote of thanks. —APP