Mumbai is reeling under a mutant viral attack. Even if fevers subside after popping a few pills, the cold and consequent cough persists for a long time
Mumbai is reeling under a mutant viral attack. Even if fevers subside after popping a few pills, the cold and consequent cough persists for a long time. Doctors partially blame this on the new viral form that refuses to go away with regular line of drugs.
At the same time, doctors also hold the upcoming high rises in the city responsible for this change.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently revealed that more than 8,400 metric tonnes of concrete waste was being generated in the city every day courtesy of the new constructions.
Patients are pouring into hospitals with throat problems and bronchitis (inflammation of air ways within lungs). Bronchitis causes shortness of breath and cough. “The numbers are significant and alarming,” said Kapil Salgia, chest physician at Bombay Hospital. “Specialists are getting cases where patients have not recovered from a normal cough for months together. There is definitely a new form of virus that is beyond
comprehension,” he said.
What started as a normal fever has turned into a nightmare for bank executive Sohini Sen. “I spend sleepless nights. No matter the amount of cough syrup I gulp, nothing has been of any help,” said Sen. It has been almost two months and she is yet to recover from what is definitely not a ‘routine cold’. Though temperature in the city has radically changed, humidity has not disappeared. “This is the reason why even if the viral disappears, inflammation of the membrane has been taking time to go away,” said general physician Hemant Thacker.
The never-ending pollution and dust in the environment is obviously to be blamed. Apart from the irritation while passing by construction sites, after a point of time, dust particles act like slow poison.
“There is an upsurge of patients suffering from bronchitis because dust particles settle and create problems for the lungs,” said ME Yolekar, dean at the KEM Hospital. Respiratory problems have risen in the past two years because of the construction boom, he said.
In order to beat the viral and the persistent cold, one needs plenty of rest, vitamins, a healthy diet and most importantly, staying away from the pollutants, said Thacker.
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