World Asthma Day is celebrated on May 3. Alongside the Covid-19 pandemic, Mumbai is also tackling poor air quality. Mid-day Online reached out to city experts to understand how this double threat affects asthma patients
Every year, World Asthma Day is observed on the first Tuesday of May by the Global Initiative for Asthma to raise awareness about the breathing condition and care for it around the world. Photo Credit: istock
Mumbai’s air quality has been recently fluctuating between ‘poor’, ‘satisfactory’ and ‘moderate’. That isn’t helping people who have issues with breathing. Dr Lancelot Pinto, consultant pulmonologist and epidemiologist at P.D Hinduja Hospital & MRC says asthma patients, especially those whose condition is not well-controlled by the regular use of inhalers, have been reporting increased shortness of breath, wheezing and cough when the Air Quality Index (AQI) worsens. AQI is a system used by government agencies to report the daily quality of air.