Winter is deadliest season for lung disease in urban India

…the department of pulmonary medicine at Rajasthan Hospital in Jaipur, tracked nearly 2,900 hospitalisations across summer, monsoon and winter, and analysed 394 deaths. The lead author of the study, Sheetu Singh, said, “ While we were looking at urban centres, some of the patients at these hospitals also came from rural parts of the country. For now, we have established a trend, but to conclude the causes, we would need large-scale studies. ” The findings identify chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as the primary killer, accounting for the highest proportion of mortality, closely followed by respiratory tract infections (RTIs). Researchers have…

…patients, compared to 35.7% women, and accounted for 69% of all respiratory deaths. Dr Sundeep Salvi, a pulmonologist at the Pune-based Pulmocare Research and Education Foundation and one of the study’s authors, said, “ The summer season is now considered to be safe for lung patients. While pollution has a direct correlation with high mortality in the winter, during the monsoon, it is viral infections. ” Interestingly, more lung cancer cases were reported in the monsoon season. Still, researchers said the data “warrants further validation in larger, prospective datasets to determine whether this represents a true…

…clinic visits for minor infections peak during the monsoon, affecting younger people, but snowball into emergencies in winter for the elderly. Winter accounts for nearly 45% of all RTI-related deaths, the study said. “ Age is a contributing factor, but that is not always true. We have seen young lung patients lose their lives due to worsening symptoms in winter ,” Dr Prabhudesai said. “Age is a contributing factor, but that is not always true. We have seen young lung patients lose their lives due to worsening of symptoms in winter,” Dr Prabhudesai said.…