Twin cities’ hospitals see increase in chest infection cases

Rawalpindi: Both the public sector healthcare facilities and private hospitals in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have been receiving extraordinary burden of patients with the chest infections and their complications including bronchitis and pneumonia while a significant rise in the number of cases of colds, sore throat, cough, flu and asthmatic problems is also being recorded.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Thursday has revealed that the medicine departments of the three allied hospitals in town including Benazir Bhutto Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital and Holy Family Hospital have been receiving a huge number of patients with mild to serious respiratory tract infections. Majority of the admitted patients with the chest infections at the allied hospitals are with acute bronchitis or pneumonia.

Pneumonia, the lower respiratory tract infection, is rising in striking proportions and almost all healthcare facilities in the public sector and private ones are receiving a significant number of patients with the problem. Experts say that all the patients with cough, fever, lethargy and thick viscid sputum for over three days should undergo a chest X RAY to avoid complications of the infection.

The data reveals that the three allied hospitals in town have received well over 20000 patients with acute respiratory infections this winter. The number of patients with various types of chest infections requiring hospitalization is on the rise though, according to senior officials at the allied hospitals, a number of clinicians in local set-ups may not be giving due attention to the problem.

It is important that the two most common types of chest infections are bronchitis and pneumonia. A chest infection can be caused by a bacterial or viral infection as bronchitis is caused by a virus while pneumonia cases are mostly bacterial in origin.

Acute bronchitis is usually caused by viruses like colds and flu, influenza and that is why antibiotics are not effective in most of the cases of bronchitis. Studies reveal that bronchitis is an inflammation of the lining of the bronchial tubes, which carry air to and from the lungs. People who have bronchitis often cough up thickened mucus, which can be clear, white, yellowish grey, or green in colour. Often developing from a cold or other respiratory infection, acute bronchitis is very common. If you have repeated bouts of bronchitis, you may have chronic bronchitis, which requires medical attention.

It is important that pneumonia develops when an infection in the airways travels to the lungs. Pneumonia symptoms tend to be worse than bronchitis. Pneumonia can cause a high grade fever, rapid heart rate and brown or bloody mucus. Experts say that after developing symptoms of severe chest infections, one must report to the nearest healthcare facility immediately.

Chesty cough, wheezing, chest pain, shortness of breath, discomfort in the chest, fever, headache, muscle aches and pains in the body and fatigue are among the most common symptoms of the chest infections.

It is important that in severe cases of chest infections, the patients may not maintain oxygenation level due to lungs’ dysfunction while the accumulation of fluid and secretions in airspaces may impair the transfer of oxygen to blood.