A deadly habit?: ‘Smoking will turn you into a slave’

Health experts discuss the rise and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

KARACHI: If you can’t make it through the day without puffing on a cigarette, you might want to consider the fact that smoking is a major cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

On Thursday health experts discussed the causes of the disease and how it is being managed in Pakistan. Dr Nadeem Rizvi from Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre said, “The disease has been the fourth-largest cause for death and second largest for disability. The disease was expected to increase by 160 per cent in the next ten years.”

In rural areas, the excessive use of biomass is a risk factor which increases the chances of women developing the disease. Around 20 per cent of the country’s labourers have the disease because they don’t use any protection at work, said Dr Rizvi. The symptoms for the disease include short breath, coughing and excessive phlegm. Spirometry - a breathing test - is used to diagnose people for the disease, said Dr Rizvi.



In his address, Dr Javed Khan of Aga Khan University Hospital emphasised the importance of research to find out the prevalence of the disease in different parts of the world. He also lamented how in Pakistan the disease wasn’t diagnosed or managed on a par with international standards - less than 10 per cent of the patients had undergone the spirometry test for diagnosis. “People don’t get tests done because they will have to quit smoking then,” said Dr Khan. He added that around 76 per cent of the patients in Pakistan have suffered from some form of exacerbation as they didn’t seek regular treatment.

Dr Khan added that 30 per cent of men and two per cent of women in Pakistan smoke. “There is a pattern here: first men smoke and then the women follow,” he said. “Smoking makes you a slave. It doesn’t set you free.”

Dr Khan feared that sheesha will cause the disease to rise in Karachi. “The ban on sheehsa is not being observed. It is easily available in most places in the city.”

Dr Khan recalled that, according to research conducted in 2008, around 40 per cent of men and 11 per cent of women smoked sheesha. Families allowed their children to do so just because it contained flavours.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2013.