Kerala has launched the first ever public health programme in the country to manage chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) and asthma, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in India, affecting nearly 9% of the population above 35 years of age.
SWAAS, Kerala’s programme for prevention and management of obstructive airway diseases, was formally launched on Tuesday, when the first model pulmonary rehabilitation clinic and psycho social counselling facility to address COPD and asthma was opened at the Chemmaruthy primary health centre (PHC) here in the district.
Even though chronic respiratory diseases are one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in the country, it is poorly addressed.
“An estimated 10 lakh people in the State are affected by COPD and asthma. In a recent study we did among 750 patients in Kerala, less than 10% patients are currently under some rehabilitation programme, while less than 1% are under a structured pulmonary rehabilitation programme,” says Sanjeev Nair, Assistant Professor, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Medical College here.
Almost half of the patients coming to the outpatient clinics in the public sector hospitals are those with asthma or COPD. Most of these patients are chronically ill because of late detection and inadequate treatment.
Early detection and protocol-based management would have resulted in significantly less morbidity for most of these patients, which is the primary goal of SWAAS.
“SWAAS aims at providing a structured programme for the management of these patients from primary care to tertiary level, by clearly diagnosing asthma and COPD (it is very difficult to distinguish between the two); developing definite strategies for managing symptoms and preventing exacerbation; and providing access to a good pulmonary rehabilitation programme. Neither asthma nor COPD are curable but the patients’ quality of life can be significantly improved,” says Dr. Nair.
SWAAS would be rolled out in select PHCs in phase one. These PHCs would have a medical officer trained in the protocols-based identification and management of asthma and COPD and trained asthma-COPD nurses.
Four model COPD clinics are also being set up in select PHCs, which will be directly linked to government medical colleges. The programme will be extended to all PHCs in a year.
