Dust, changing weather: Allergies continue to haunt residents

Doctors fear present pollen season may make matters worse

ISLAMABAD: There has been no considerable decline in patients suffering from several kinds of allergies, asthma and common cold in the last year.

Health experts have attributed variations in temperature along with dust in the environment due to ongoing construction work as major reasons behind these illnesses.

They fear that the pollen allergy season, which has begun, will give a further tough time to patients.

According to data collected from two major public hospitals of the capital, the outpatient departments (OPD) are receiving 140-160 patients on average everyday who are suffering from allergies, common cold and upper respiratory chest infections, among other related illnesses.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Asadullah Nemati, a senior chest physician at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, said it has been a year now that the OPDs are flooded with such patients. “The number of patients only drops when there is rain,” he said.

He added that nowadays people usually avoid wearing warm clothes during the day and at night when the temperature drops, they do not cover themselves properly.

“Majority of the patients are complaining about persistent coughing along with pain in throat,” he said.

A senior physician at Polyclinic who wished not to be named said he had never seen this high a number of patients visiting the hospital throughout the year with allergies, common cold and asthma.

“Earlier, the hospital used to receive such an influx when the weather was changing or during extreme winters but since the last year even in the summer the number of patients went up,” he said.

He advised pollen allergy patients to take extra measures during the season and wear face masks.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2015.