Severe Pollution Causes Drug-Resistant Cough In Kolkata Kids

Children under 12 are worst affected and conventional medicines are either working slowly or not working at all.

Children in Kolkata, especially those under 12, have been plagued by a persistent cough since last week that is not reacting to common medicines.

(Photo: Erum Gour/The Quint)

The persistent morning fog in Kolkata has caused a series of illnesses in the city, including a drug-resistant cough that is affecting children, reported the Times Of India (TOI).

Certain pockets of the city have been shrouded in smog since last week, and respiratory diseases have been on the rise. Severe cough among children under 12 is what has the doctors worried, and the illness is increasingly becoming resistant to common drugs, as reported by TOI.

Kolkata is gripped by a pollution crisis. The city has reported rising pollution levels over the past year. On many days, the air quality index report from the American Embassy in the city claimed particulate matter levels (PM2.5) were well above safe levels, above and beyond even “hazardous levels.”

What we take to be the fog is actually smog or a polluted mass of condensed water vapour rich in carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and even lead. It is potent enough to trigger a range of respiratory illnesses. Over the last two weeks, innumerable children have been afflicted with this cough that has been defying medication. It has been persisting for more than 10 days, which is unusual.

Sanatanu Ray, peadiatrician to <i>TOI</i>

Ray explained that this smog is rich in heavy metals like lead, and had a high carbon content capable of precipitating drug-resistant disorders.

“Inhaling this polluted air has been taking its toll on citizens. Conventional drugs have either not been working or acting slowly. The suffering has been so severe that many of my young patients have needed hospitalization,” Ray said.

Some doctors have been taking the cough as an infection and prescribing antibiotics. However, they are proving to be ineffective and adding to the misery.

Smog-induced cough is an allergy and not an infection. So, instead of antibiotics, anti-allergy medicines and in severe cases, low-dose steroids would work better. Since smog contains PM 2.5 that easily infiltrate the lungs, pollutants are able to enter the system very quickly. Unlike bacterial or viral infections, pollution-triggered respiratory distress or cough may not be neutralised with conventional drugs.

Arindam Biswas, Consultant, General Medicine, RN Tagore International Institute Of Cardiac Sciences to <i>TOI</i>

Children with a pre-existing asthma condition have been worst affected, and have to either be put on nebulisers or hospitalised. It is difficult to prevent the cough, even more, because children are affected by pollution on their way to school.

Pulmonologists have said that those suffering from respiratory diseases should use inhalers as a preventive measure.

The city’s real-time pollution monitors have been defunct since November 2017. Earlier, Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee had denied reports of rising pollution levels, refuting reports that show the city’s pollution levels were worse than levels in the national capital, on many days.