From the Editor
Our cover story this week is Respiratory Medicine which covers respiratory diseases and their management. Let us know little bit about respiratory system. The respiratory system starts at the nose and mouth and continues through the airways (bronchi-left and right) to the lungs. The term bronchial disease usually refers to the diseases of the lower respiratory tracts.
The air goes to the lungs via the trachea (windpipe), which divides into smaller tubes called the bronchi. The lungs are subdivided into lobes. Hence bronchopneumonia means the infection of the bronchial tubes and lobar pneumonia refers to infection of one of the large portion of lungs. Asthma is appropriately called bronchial asthma because it affects the air tubes.
Hundreds of millions of people suffer everyday from chronic respiratory diseases. According to the latest WHO estimates , currently 235 million have asthma; 64 million people have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) while millions have allergic rhinitis and other often under-diagnosed chronic respiratory disease.
Chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) are diseases of the airways and other structures of the lung. Some of the most common are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, occupational lung disease and pulmonary hypertension. In addition to tobacco smoke, other risk factors include air pollution, occupation chemicals and dust and frequent lower respiratory infections during childhood.
The WHO Global Alliance against CRDs (GARD) has a vision of a world in which all people breathe freely, and focuses in particular on the needs of people with CRDs in low income and middle income
countries.
