Reader’s Digest India – July 2019

HEALTH

Devidas Hari Tayade is a labourer in

the Yawal Taluka in Maharashtra’s

Jalgaon district. Addicted to bidis since

he was 13, Tayade worked as a milk-

delivery boy, and then moved to digging

wells in his village for the next 20 years.

Around eight years ago, he started

experiencing acute shortness of

breath—a feeling that no matter how

hard or deeply he inhaled, his lungs

always felt short of air. “I attributed

this to the heavy work,” he says. But

the discomfort persisted, eventually

compelling him to move to Pune to work

as a watchman. Eight months ago, on

his wife’s insistence, he got himself

examined. This was when 68-year-old

Tayade was diagnosed with Chronic

Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

However, he is yet to give up on tobacco,

a leading cause of this condition.

“I smoke only 10 or 11 bidis a day; it

used to be 50 earlier,” he admits.

Across the country, in Kolkata, lives

82-year-old Krishna Kamal Das, for-

merly a busy executive and a regular

smoker 40 years ago. Das would suffer

from frequent bouts of cough and cold,

but each time a phase began, he would

brush it off. “Every time I travelled

A silent epidemic, chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease is preventable but,

worryingly, under-diagnosed

WHEN

BREATH

BECOMES A

BURDEN

By Rina Mukherjee

66 july 2019

indiapicture & alamy