Kolkata hospital opens severe asthma clinic with latest global technology
Times of India | 9 May 2024
KOLKATA: A severe asthma clinic to provide world-class asthma treatment at par with global standards was opened in Kolkata on World Asthma Day. The clinic opened at Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI), a unit of CK Birla Hospital, will deploy the latest global technology to detect early stages of asthma, lung disorders and severe asthma cases.
“Severe asthma is difficult to control and often requires emergency care and hospitalization. Patients face daily struggles with their breathing, leading to a decreased quality of life and significant health care costs. The establishment of a severe asthma clinic will serve as a centralized hub for these patients to receive comprehensive care from a team of dedicated health care professionals,” Dr Beauty Biswas, consultant - Pulmonology said.
The Severe Asthma Clinic is expected to offer step wise asthma management plans as per the Global Initiative of Asthma (GINA) guidelines, including personalised care plans offering advanced therapies like biologics with close supervision during administration by respiratory nurse and ongoing support to manage their asthma more efficiently.
At the clinic, there will be proper training on inhaler techniques, identification of co-morbidities such as Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) through advanced sleep lab, Bronchiectasis & ABPA through HRCT scans and serologic markers, identifying atopic status by skin prick test, reconfirmation of degree of severity of asthma through advanced lung function lab, dietary advice, psychological counselling and checking compliance to therapies with each visit.
“Air pollution not only causes asthma, but also intensifies asthma symptoms as various pollutants take multiple pathways to trigger asthmatic tendencies. As polluted air is a mixture of harmful elements, the combination of these elements has a multiplier effect on one’s lungs. If one has information about the harmful effects of each pollutant on lungs, then one can formulate diagnostic methods to implicate air pollution directly to pathological changes in lungs. Since we do not have such facilities at present, we cannot measure the effect of pollution clinically on human bodies and hence, have to depend heavily on epidemiological studies only,” Dr Arup Halder, Consultant - Pulmonology, CMRI, during a panel discussion following the launch of the clinic.
Several panelists also spoke about the effect of air pollution on lungs and how asthma occurs and how to combat it.
Dr Raja Dhar, director & HOD - Pulmonology departmentsaid, “Out of every 100 people dying from asthma across the world, 43 are from India. The latest Lancet report shows that 80% of asthma in India remains undiagnosed, while 70% of those who are diagnosed do not receive proper treatment. We chose World Asthma Day for the launch of Severe Asthma Clinic as it is the day when we try to spread awareness about the disease.”
The need for a severe asthma clinic has risen as India has one of the highest cases of asthma in the world. According to the findings of Global Burden of Disease Report 2021 published by Lancet, India has about 38 million asthmatics. The total number of asthmatics throughout the world is 340 million. India accounts for about 10% of the global burden of asthma.
“This is the first state-of-the-art Severe Asthma Clinic, housed in a hospital in West Bengal, equipped with the latest technologies to diagnose and detect lung problems and prevent the occurrence of asthma. We are hopeful that in the coming years, we will be able to bring down the mortality rate of patients dying from chronic asthma related problems,” said Sombrata Roy, Unit Head, CMRI.