Cure one respiratory disease, today!
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Cure one respiratory disease, today!
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If you could cure one respiratory disease, today, which would it be? You could competely erradicate a respiratory disease from the face of the planet, right now. Easy decision? Do
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Cat:OpenClinicalForum:8114d353-b41b-4a03-b052-dc009589d5cfDiscussion:ac4da106-7a10-4eba-ac1c-9ad42955a5e8
Forums » Open clinical » Respiratory medicine » Cure one respiratory disease, today!
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Cure one respiratory disease, today!
posted at 15/3/2012 3:39 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1181
First: 19/4/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
If you could cure one respiratory disease, today, which would it be? You could competely erradicate a respiratory disease from the face of the planet, right now. Easy decision? Do you choose COPD, as it's very common, carries significant morbidity and mortality? Or do you choose LAM, as it has no cure? Or perhaps CF, as it's genetic, and as such is "no-one's fault".... Pick a disease to cure today!
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DundeeDevil'sAdvocate
posted at 15/3/2012 5:36 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1181
First: 19/4/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
Why? TB is rare - I diagnose 3 cases a year in my practice. It is, in the main, curable. Would it have the biggest impact on local, regional, world health, out of any lung disease? We don't have sanitoria for the consumption any more.... |
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Re: Cure one respiratory disease, today!
posted at 15/3/2012 6:36 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 492
First: 12/7/2010 Last: 7/5/2013 |
TB is exceedingly common here - yesterday I saw a patient with sputum positive PTB, today another with pleural effusion probably of tuberculer etiology. These were in-patients and there are many more that I don't personally see and those who receive outpatient treatment. The incidence of TB in Southeast Asia was 33,00,000, prevalence 49,00,000, and 480,000 died (excluding HIV) in 2009 ( http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/ ). Add HIV to it and TB becomes far more deadly. In India about 2 million people develop TB every year and about 330,000 die from it. TB is a huge problem, affecting mainly the poor it doesn't get the media attention it should have gotten. Add problems of drug resistance - MDR and XDR TB and an almost ineffective vaccine to the burden of TB control.
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Re: Cure one respiratory disease, today!
posted at 15/3/2012 8:20 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 963
First: 15/7/2011 Last: 24/5/2013 |
I would suggest COPD, already stated by Dundee Chest. It is so crippling and must be horrible not too be able to catch your breath - not even one proper deep breath. My father has it. Perhaps one day it will be more amenable to better therapy. |
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Re: Cure one respiratory disease, today!
posted at 15/3/2012 10:12 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1181
First: 19/4/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
All good choices. I completely accept the TB answer - it's clearly a big problem (outside Dundee ;-) COPD is a massive burden worldwide, but it's almost entirely preventable. If people stopped smoking, COPD would disappear within 40 years, leaving me with another disease to sort out. Can I suggest Sleep Apnoea? It's a worldwide problem, creates massive morbidity, causes huge numbers of RTA associated deaths, and one might postulate that there is a huge amount of lost productivity due to the daytime somnolence, sleepy workers, people not concentrating etc. If we were to erradicate sleep apnoea, how much more could we, as a population, achieve? Not to mention the reduction in syndrome X, the metabolic syndrome. Asthma is a good choice, as it's so common, particularly in Scotland. Lots of morbidity. But mortality is not massively high, although those that do die from acute attacks are often very young. Does anyone else have any choices? Or does anyone want to suppot one of the previous choices?
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Re: Cure one respiratory disease, today!
posted at 16/3/2012 12:33 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1181
First: 19/4/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
In Response to Re: Cure one respiratory disease, today!: I'd go for hyperinflated egos. Posted by Odysseus I'd have thought you'd have gone for Sleep Apnoea? Or would it put you out of business?
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