‘Community involvement a must to fight asthma in city’

Involvement of the community is the key to management of asthma in mega cities like Mumbai, say experts.

An 11-member core team of Mumbai Asthma Coalition (Mac) is working towards this goal, but they feel that a lot needs to be done to push for a larger agenda to tackle the disease. 

The coalition last week released a fact sheet on asthma in an interactive session on ‘Managing asthma in mega cities’ at KEM Hospital.

The fact sheet, which is a small leaflet, will be distributed in schools, colleges, hospitals and other places across the city. It compiles the basic details of the disease and measures that a person should take.

The idea of Mac was conceived in 2005 when the members of United States Environmental Protection agency (USEP) and the New York City Asthma Partnership visited the city for a workshop.

“Besides the core group of 11 members, we are gathering experts from across various fields to be a part of the coalition,” said Dr Athar Qureishi of Centre for Health Promotion, an NGO. The core team consists of health experts, citizen forums, NGOs and community workers.

According to Qureshi, a public health expert, asthma has to be addressed in a comprehensive manner.

Dr Rakesh Kumar, head of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute said, “We need to have long-term studies on health aspects and its correlation with air pollution and other environmental factors.”

Kumar, also a part of the coalition, added, “The policy makers should also step in to ensure that there are regulations so that these environmental diseases are not rampantly spread.”