Mumbai: One in five patients at civic clinics complains of respiratory ailment

MUMBAI: The most common complaint for which a Mumbaikar visits the BMC’s 175 dispensaries is acute respiratory illness (ARI). The civic morbidity survey shows that respiratory illnesses, including cold, cough or viral/bacterial infection, account for 20% of the patient load at the dispensaries.

The BMC’s executive health officer, Dr Padmaja Keskar, said, “Due to this survey, we now have precise information about patient load (over 12.7 lakh patients sought treatment for ARI during 2015-2017; the figure doesn’t include patients who go to private clinics). The reasons for respiratory ailments could be pollution, congestion due to vehicles and people, as well as seasonal infections.”

Experts said poor air quality through various sources in the city could be one of the main reasons. As per the survey, 21% of civic dispensary patients suffer from various airborne infections like fever, cough and cold. Experts said this percentage was much higher than the normal average of 12%, and therefore these airborne infections could be attributed to air pollution to an extent. Dr Rakesh Kumar, director, National Environment Engineering Research Institute (Neeri), said, “On-ground emissions from various sources are what are impacting people. Construction-related dust and vehicular pollution are among the reasons. Then there are local sources of pollution as well, like garbage burning. Besides, unregistered bakeries, where they burn plywood, too are a source.”

Incidentally, the BMC plans to start offering diagnostic tests at its dispensaries. “So, patients who would visit our hospitals only because of the availability of tests need not do so anymore,” said Dr Keskar. “It would help decongest the hospitals.”

Meanwhile, some experts, including Dr Gufran Beig, project director, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (Safar) at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), pointed out that the toxicity of particulate matter was higher in Mumbai than in cities like Delhi and Pune.