Smokers less responsive to medicine for asthma: Expert
05 March, 2013
ISLAMABAD: The doctors must make asthma patients quit smoking first, as smokers are less responsive to the medicines used in the disease. British Expert on asthmatic and pulmonary diseases Prof. Andrew Greening said this at an interactive sessions organized by Mediators, a consultant firm, here in a local hotel. He elaborated the causes and identification of asthma and various strategies for its treatment. To a question, he said that a combination inhalator and other concerned medicines would be better but he said, studies show that the patients with no smoking are responsive to the treatment and medicine of asthma as compare to smokers. Therefore doctors are suggested to persuade such patients to quit smoking first. He said that treatment of asthmatic patient is possible though not easy if proper medicine combination is suggested. Greening, a physician and president-elect British thoracic society, said that studies show that 78 per cent of the patients with mild asthma, 70 per cent with moderate and 47-62 per cent of the patients with severe asthma showed encouraging symptoms after their treatments. He said that if an asthmatic patient’s conditions improve and asthmatic symptoms start to disappear then stepping down of seretide is not bad but not so quickly. He also suggested different strategies to be adopted during treatment of an asthmatic patient. The sessions on ‘Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)’ were divided into two parts one was exclusively held for specialists in asthma and another for general practitioners. Professor Mukhtiar Zaman from Khyber Teaching Hospital inaugurate the first session while the second was opened with announcement by Aftab Akhtar from Al-Shifa hospital, Islamabad. Doctors from various parts of the country attended the session while journalists, representative from NGOs, pharmaceutical companies and government hospitals were also present on this occasion. End.
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