Lung diseases kill yet remain overlooked

Health leaders push awareness amid escalating chronic respiratory challenges, writes Anucha Charoenpo in Kuala Lumpur

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Jose Luis Castro, WHO Director-General Special Envoy for Chronic Respiratory Diseases, centre, answers media questions in Kuala Lumpur, ahead of the World COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Day tomorrow.

A senior representative from the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged all stakeholders governments, clinicians, journalists and advocates to confront chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs), particularly Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), in the lead-up to World COPD Day tomorrow.

COPD is a group of lung conditions, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis, that block airflow and make it difficult to breathe. It causes symptoms such as shortness of breath, a chronic cough, and mucus production.

The primary cause is long-term exposure to lung irritants, most often cigarette smoke, which damages the lungs and airways over time.

Jose Luis Castro, WHO Director-General Special Envoy for CRDs and Director of the Pace Center for Global Health, told a media workshop on COPD in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that anyone who breathes can develop COPD. This disease is affecting over 390 million people globally, and the number continues to rise.

"It's our chronic respiratory diseases which have long been underreported and underrepresented in global foreign discussions. So this has been a major push," Mr Castro told journalists from Thailand, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom.

The workshop, jointly held by the WHO and Pace University's Center for Global Health, was aimed at providing the media with knowledge on CRDs and COPD and access to experts with the goal of raising awareness and spurring action around these critical yet under-reported diseases.