Indo-US Joint Centre To Research Link Between IAP And COPD

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) is a major public health problem affecting millions of people in both developed and developing countries. There is no effective treatment for COPD, which is characterised by chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Whilst many millions of people in the developed world suffer from COPD, the problem is particularly severe in rural communities in the developing world. As a report on Healthcanal.com explains, high incidences of environmental lung disease are being caused primarily by indoor cooking using biomass and other solid fuels.

A recent report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) breaks down the causes of COPD further.

“COPD has opposite patterns according to geographic areas. In high- and middle-income countries, tobacco smoke is the biggest risk factor, while in low-income countries exposure to indoor air pollution, such as the use of biomass fuels for cooking and heating, causes the COPD burden. Almost 3 billion people worldwide use biomass and coal as their main source of energy for cooking, heating, and other household needs. In these communities, indoor air pollution is responsible for a greater fraction of COPD risk than smoking or outdoor air pollution.Biomass fuels used by women for cooking account for the high prevalence of COPD among non-smoking women in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Indoor air pollution resulting from the burning of wood and other biomass fuels is estimated to kill two million women and children each year.”

Despite research by the WHO into COPD occurrence in non-smokers, the pathobiology and a definitive link between indoor air pollution (caused by burning  solid fuels and cooking over traditional stoves) and the disease is still unclear.

To address this issue, the Indo-US Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF) has awarded funding to The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to establish the first centre to study COPD and other lung diseases in non-smokers living in rural India.

The centre, to be called the Indo-US Center of Excellence for Environmental Lung Diseases, will be led jointly by Shyam Biswal, Professor at the Bloomberg School’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Sundeep Salvi, Director of India’s Chest Research Foundation at Pune and Anurag Agrawal, MD of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in Delhi.

Speaking to Healthcanal.com, Biswal said “We are beginning to appreciate the global problem of non-smoker COPD but our understanding of pathobiology is unclear. This Centre will attempt to bring together experts from both countries to face this public health challenge”.

The Indian investigators will share data with their US counterparts on a number of factors influencing levels of IAP. These include firewood consumption in rural homes, duration of time spent cooking, level of exposure to toxic fumes and gene-environment interaction. Such information will provide a clearer understanding of susceptibility to the disease, leading to the development of new treatments for the affected population.

Read the full story on: Indo-U.S. Center Established to Study Nonsmoking-Related Causes of COPD

Afghanistan's Big Killer Is In The Kitchen

Afghanistan is among the top ten countries worst- affected by indoor pollution, as per the World Health Organization, with more than 95 per cent of Afghanistan’s 30 million people burning solid fuels like wood and coal in their homes, reports Reuters.

More than 54,000 Afghans die each year from diseases attributed to inhaling smoke from cooking and burning, accounting for more deaths than even the violence in the war-ridden country where, according to the United Nations, over 2,400 civilians died in conflict related violence in the first ten months of 2010.

Afghanistan's acting Minister of Public Health Dr Suraya Dalil feels that women and children are the worst affected by indoor pollution as they spend a lot of the time indoors, specially in the harsh winters.

Photo Courtesy: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan

Read the full story on: Winter brings fiery killer into Afghan homes

Re-emerging TB in Africa Linked To Poverty

According to a recent report by STOP TB department of the World Health Organization, high poverty levels in Africa are driving the re-emerging tuberculosis pandemic. According to the report in VaccineNewsDaily.com, over 1.7 million people died from TB (including 380,000 women) in 2009. TB is among the three greatest causes of death among women aged 15-44 years.

TB is thought of as more likely to spread in these low-income regions as a result of overcrowding, malnutrition, lack of proper housing ventilation, indoor air pollution and long distances to health centers.

“TB in Africa is precipitated by poverty and social conditions that elevate the risk of infection,” said Mario Raviglione, director of the STOP TB department of the WHO.

A recent study by Professor Anthony Harries, a senior advisor to the Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, showed that many patients in Malawi who tested positive for pulmonary TB had related low-income social conditions. Thirty-six percent of the patients lived in mud hut houses, 75 percent had no access to piped water, 45 percent had a monthly income of less than $10 and 92 percent had no electricity in their homes.

Another factor in the spread of the pandemic is that many patients visit traditional healers before attempting mainstream medical treatment. This causes the condition to worsen and makes the medical treatment less effective.