Delhi's Toxic Air Delays Cancer Treatment, Spikes Child Respiratory Cases: Doctors

The national capital daily wakes up to hazardous AQI. The implications of air pollution are impacting the health of citizens.

Speaking with ANI, Dr Nita Radhakrishnan, Additional Professor and HOD, Department of Pediatric Haematology-Oncology, said a rise in air pollution delays treatment of cancer patients, "When the air quality worsens, we have patients who come with respiratory symptoms, which are more. We see more respiratory complaints during this period than any other period of the year."

"So, because of this, when you have a cough, cold, and difficulty in breathing, etc., then your regular treatment stops. Because of that, you have to wait for the chemotherapy. There is a break in chemotherapy for a few days, and then you can restart. So that will definitely impact their overall treatment outcome," she added.

She further that these patients also catches more infections, "Many a times when they are catching more infections on top of them, because of this weather, as well as because of the air quality, they are more prone to infections in the lung, and because of which they again have drop in their counts, and because of which treatment again stops treatment for few days. So these are two issues which we face every year."

"On top of that, we do not know the long-term effects, like even for normal human beings, normal people who live in such air conditions with poor air quality for a long time. So, definitely, there must be an impact of that also on the long-term lung function of children who are undergoing treatment for cancer as well," she said

The children and adults in Delhi NCR are facing serious health issues as AQI remains in the 'severe' category.

According to Dr Dhiren Gupta, Sr Consultant, Paediatrics, Sir Gangaram, said, "We have to understand why kids are different from adults, right₹ They have a short height, so they are near the surface of the Earth, so most of the pollution, especially during cold weather, gets settled. Second, they breathe mostly from the mouth because many of these kids have a nasal blockage. Third is their respiratory rate is very high. So these are the causes which can lead to more ingestion, more inhalation of pollutants. Second, as we understand, all these kids are immature. Their brain is immature, their lungs, whole body system is immature, so obviously they are getting more affected."

"This time we are seeing more than 90% cases of children with respiratory illnesses. Many kids are coming due to severe asthma, and especially in Ward, the number of patients has increased as compared to the last few years, and some are getting admitted to ICUs," he said.

- ANI