A two-day joint Indo-US workshop on respiratory diseases due to environment conditions concluded at the UT guesthouse today with experts from both the countries agreeing on strengthening the ongoing research projects to deal with the increasing burden of the disease. The department of Pulmonary Medicine, PGI had organised the workshop.

Around 20 experts from the US along with specialists from the country took part in the deliberations, which emphasised on the creation of a study on the impact of climatic changes on the disease pattern in the training module.

Though very few studies have been undertaken in the country to study the impact of environmental conditions on respiratory diseases in India, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that 24 per cent of the global disease burden and 23 per cent of all deaths can be attributed to the same.

In developing countries, an estimated 42 per cent of acute lower respiratory infections are caused by environmental factors.

“Environmental factors include both indoor and the outdoor pollution and diseases like bronchial asthma and allergies can aggravate if pollution levels are high,” claimed the experts.