Pollution-led respiratory illness in Delhi: 68,411 cases, 10,819 hospital admissions in 2024

New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) Rising air pollution levels is surging acute respiratory infections (ARI) in the national capital, with 68,411 cases and 10,819 hospital admissions reported in 2024, the government said in the Parliament on Tuesday.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, shared details of rising air pollution and respiratory diseases in urban areas.

“Air pollution is one of the triggering factors for respiratory ailments and associated diseases,” said Jadhav.

The MoS noted that the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) conducts sentinel surveillance of air pollution-related illnesses through the network of more than 230 sentinel surveillance sites spanning across 30 states/UTs.

Further, in August 2023, the government launched Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) digital surveillance through the Integrated Health Information Portal (IHIP).

He shared the ARI surveillance data of six sentinel sites of Delhi: AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, LHMC Group of Hospitals, RML Hospital, NITRD Hospital, and VPCI Hospital.

It showed that in 2022, a total of 67,054 cases were reported to the emergency departments of these six sites, while 9,878 required hospital admission. In 2023, the cases jumped to 69,293, while hospital admissions dropped to 9,727, the Minister said.

However, Jadhav noted that “there is no conclusive data available in the country to establish direct correlation of death or disease exclusively due to air pollution”.

“Health effects of air pollution are a synergistic manifestation of factors, which include food habits, occupational habits, socio-economic status, medical history, immunity, heredity, etc., of individuals,” he explained.

The Ministry of Health also issues health advisories on air pollution to all states every year to support them in preparedness for such health problems at all levels of health care facilities across the country.

Health sector preparedness and response mechanisms on air pollution and health-related issues such as Air Quality Index (AQI) reports are also shared with states for preparedness and response mechanisms, the Minister said.

--IANS

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