Delhi's bad weather, pollution predisposes to infections: Expert

Raising concerns over the 'severe' air quality of the national capital post-Diwali, Dr Ashok Seth, Chairman, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute on Monday said bad weather and pollution predisposes people to infections.

Speaking to ANI, Dr Seth said, "There has been an increase in chest infections and bronchitis and hypersensitivity in people having cough and breathlessness. And those who already had lung disorders, their condition worsened and had to get admitted to the hospital. The second aspect is that there have been a lot of people who recovered from COVID and got damage to the lungs. The damage to the lungs has been mild, and they were actually carrying on their activities with mild breathlessness, but now this actually makes it much worse for them."

"Thirdly, such bad weather and pollution predispose to infections. There is a lot of viral infection which increases again. COVID is one of the viral infections and it is worrisome that post-Diwali celebrations and sort of giving up of many of the COVID protocols may result in an increased infection of COVID. And this provides favourable conditions for COVID to actually multiply and the situation gets worse in such circumstances of pollution, smoke and cold," he emphasised.

Dr Seth said the elderly and people with heart disease are vulnerable to air pollution. "Finally, our elderly are very prone to it. They are absolutely the ones who actually will catch this straight away and get affected. And then those with heart disorders that precipitate heart attacks, angina and heart failure. When chest infection occurs, they deteriorate from the lungs. Their heart deteriorates simultaneously. So people are admitted. Unless the situation (pollution) improved, we are going to see a lot more beds filling up with those getting affected by this very condition," he said. The air quality in various parts of the national capital continues to remain in the 'severe category', informed the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) on Monday.

As per SAFAR's analysis, an overall air quality index (AQI) of 432 was reported in the national capital today morning.

According to the government agencies, an AQI between 0-50 is considered good, 51-100 is satisfactory, 101-200 moderate, 201-300 poor, 301-400 very poor and 401-500 are marked as severe/hazardous.

The city had recorded an AQI of 436 (severe category) on Sunday morning.SAFAR, in its daily bulletin, informed that currently, the AQI is still in the 'severe' category because of the large influx of stubble related pollutants which appears to be due to the much higher effective fire count observed than that assumed in the SAFAR model for forecasting.

AQI is forecasted to improve but stay in the high end of the 'very poor' to the 'severe' category in the next two days.

People are advised to avoid all outdoor physical activities and move to indoor activities. If anyone is suffering from asthma, they should keep relief medicine handy, as per the SAFAR advisory.

( With inputs from ANI )