COPD: What we know about the disease that killed a million Indians in 2017

Levels of air pollution have risen dramatically over the last two to three decades. That has had a major impact on COPD

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) was the second highest cause of death in India after heart disease in 2017, killing 1 million (958,000) Indians that year, according to University of Washington’s Global Burden of Disease study, 2018.

COPD led to 13% of all deaths in India, and 7.5 million were at risk of the disease in 2016, IndiaSpend reported in January 2018.

COPD is an incurable and progressive condition, which inflames airways in the lungs and destroys air sacs, which extract oxygen from the air