Hamshah Ali used to be an active person who played football and rugby. He also jogger routinely. However, one day, everything changed. Even simple activities like gardening became troublesome because he would get tired after 60 minutes.
Pulmonary Fibrosis or PF may not be a generally known disease, but it certainly affects a patient’s personal satisfaction, limiting his activities until the individual beginnings depending more on relatives and caregivers.
PF, which is also known as scarring of the lungs, is a frequently fatal lung disease. For a patient, it can make walking across a room feel like scaling a mountain.
At first, they may find it hard to climb up stairs but later, even walking on flat ground or sitting becomes tiring. The condition makes inflammation and scars to build up in the lungs, which makes the lungs unable to transport oxygen into the circulatory system effectively.
Eventually, lungs become stiff and this makes breathing muscles work extra hard to pull in air with every breath.
Institut Perubatan Respiratori (IPR) respiratory physician, Dr Syazatul Syakirin Sirol Aflah says PF is an intense life-limiting illness which many don’t know about and the process of diagnosis can be long and challenging. It encompasses a group of more than 200 disorders that cause scarring of the lungs.
“The majority of the causes are not identifiable and this is called Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) which has a median survival rate of 2-5 years after diagnosis and to date there is no cure. Notwithstanding, there is treatment to reduce the progression of the disease.”
Early detection is of prime importance as the earlier you detect it, the better your odds of dealing with the disease.
Dr Syakirin adds that the disease primarily affects patients over 50 years old and affects more men than women.
However, this does not mean the younger age group is not susceptible.
Some known causes and risk factors of PF are environmental exposure to unsafe elements such as mold and animals with feathers such as birds, consuming long term medications that are known to affect lungs, autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, genetics and smoking. Viral infections have also shown an association with PF.
Although a direct relationship between respiratory viral infections and the development of progressive fibrosis has not been completely established, evidence from the SARS outbreak and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) shows a clear link between coronavirus infection, persistent impairment of lung function and abnormal radiological findings consistent with PF.
PF is often mistaken as asthma or other respiratory disease because of the similarities of symptoms. Although hard to detect, the most common symptoms and signs of the condition include shortness of breath and a persistent dry cough.
As the disease advances, the patient will develop widened and rounded tips of the fingers (finger clubbing) resulting from a shortage of oxygen.
Source: Meera Murugesan (NST.COM.MY)
