16 percent schoolgirls use tobacco
By our correspondent
KARACHI: The use of tobacco is very common amongst school going girls and about 16 per cent of them were found using tobacco in some form or the other, a recently conducted survey said.
Prof Javed Khan, Head section Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, the Aga Khan University shared the findings of the survey at a continuing medical education programme titled, ‘Recent Advances in Respiratory Medicines’ held at the AKU on Sunday.
Prof Khan termed the trend as frightening and said that respiratory diseases were on the rise in Pakistan because of the trend of smoking particularly amongst the youth of the country.
“Smoking is currently responsible for over 100,000 deaths annually in Pakistan and if the spiralling smoking epidemic is not checked, it is expected that mortality from tobacco use would mount to over 500,000 per year by 2020,” warned Prof Khan.
He added that over 90 per cent occurrence of the lung cancer could be prevented if smoking is avoided.
Dr Asif Imam, an allergist at the AKU, in his lecture said that 20 per cent of children and 10 per cent adults in the country were suffering from allergic disorders but most patients were not receiving optimal treatment for this condition.
“Asthma is the most common form of allergic disorder in Pakistan, but with modern treatment almost all asthma patients could live normal life,” he said.
Dr Muhammad Irfan, Consultant Pulmonologist, gave presentation on management of respiratory failure while Dr Nisar Rao, Assistant Professor, Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, spoke on TB.
Ismailimail 