As already mentioned in the previous blog, air pollution and it’s risk for respiratory diseases is very urgent. Suspended particulate matter can eventually lead to respiratory illnesses. Two of those we will describe in more detail here, since it forms a double burden as well. The first is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is…

As discussed in previous blogs, air pollution can lead to an increase in tuberculosis incidence, or can be a main contributor to lung cancer. Moreover, air pollution also has a large effect on respiratory diseases. Respiratory diseases are largely responsible for a significant burden from healthcare costs, premature mortality, lost productivity, significant disability and social…

Respiratory infections are the most common chronic disease of children globally, are a leading cause of death in developing countries and make a large contribution to the overall burden of disease as measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost. The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number…

In this blogpost we would like to adress another disease that occurs in high numbers in Souteasth Asia; Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (hereafter TB) affects nearly three million people in the Southeast Asia Region every year. Of this number, nearly one million are not detected or are not treated well. The knowledge about the condition of air…

In the last two blog posts the concerns that are present in India due to pollution were vividly discussed. There is no doubt that this urgency is something very relevant and needs to be fixed. An indirect consequence of this is a loss of GDP. In 2013, India has lost over 8.5 percent due to…

India is part of Southeast-Asia and the seventh-largest country by area. The number of inhabitants has increased drastically from 361 million in 1951 to more than 1.3 billion people nowadays. Pakistan, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh are neighbouring countries. India has a fast-growing economy and an expanding middle class. And although it has reduced…

India accounts for 22 of the world’s 30 cities with the worst air pollution, 7 of them are in the top 10 which makes India the most polluted country in the world. According to a new study, globally air pollution will cause around 7 million premature deaths in 2020. Greenpeace Southeast Asia concluded that next…