IPCRG conference

Professor Onno van Schayck, and Cristian, Preeti and Megha – the three PhD researchers working on Project Exhale – attended the International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) South Asian Scientific Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka at the beginning of August, 2017. Professor Onno van Schayck spoke on the “Global impact of air pollution and local solutions”, while Cristian and Preeti spoke about their community engagement work on Project Exhale and won an award for their presentation at the conference.

Health camp at Ashrayanagar

A health camp organized by Health in Slums, Bangalore Baptist Hospital and Pragathi Charitable Trust was held in Ashrayanagar in July, 2017. During the health camp, the local community was provided with a health check (with approximately 100-150 consultations) and free medicines as needed. One member of the community – a 65 year old woman – was also operated for a cataract at Bangalore Baptist Hospital through this activity. Esther Boudewijns (Maastricht University, the Netherlands), who spent almost five months in Bangalore supporting Dr. Megha Thakur with her work on Project Exhale, raised the funds necessary for the health camp.

Publication: threats to respiratory health in slums

Would you like to know what we recommend for research and opportunities in policy making to improve respiratory health in urban slums? Read our publication in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine: https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2213-2600%2816%2930245-4

More than half the world’s population lives in urban areas, and an estimated 863 million people currently live in urban slums. Although urbanisation is usually coupled with economic development, rural-to-urban migration can result in negative implications for respiratory health. Slum residents who live in informal settlements and who commonly have inadequate access to health services are at a particularly high risk of being aff ected by the dual burden of infectious and non-communicable respiratory diseases over the course of their lives.

The challenge for cities in low-income and middle-income countries is to mitigate emerging risk factors
and prioritise expanded access to preventive care for chronic diseases, while still managing infectious
diseases.