![\"\"](\"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Feature-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this country,\u00a0we need to\u00a0take\u00a0note of\u00a0the air we breathe\u00a0and make sure that this air is clean.\u201d\u00a0These words were spoken by Dr Martin\u00a0Balzan, a consultant on Respiratory Medicine and General Medicine at the Mater Dei Hospital during a recent interview by the Voice of the Workers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dr\u00a0Balzan\u00a0explained that studies\u00a0that have been carried out consistently throughout the last 20 years\u00a0have shown\u00a0that the rate of respiratory diseases in Malta is among the highest in Europe. He said that when we refer to respiratory diseases\u00a0we are talking about asthma and hay fever.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He said that normally,\u00a0in Europe, the lower down you go,\u00a0the lower the prevalence. In Malta,\u00a0the\u00a0reverse is true\u00a0and statistics show that the percentage of respiratory disease\u00a0in Malta is higher than that in Northern European countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When he was asked to explain the principle causes of allergies and respiratory disease, Dr\u00a0Balzan\u00a0said that, although\u00a0it has not been scientifically proven, nowadays the cause of such diseases is generally accepted to be fine dust in the air that cannot be seen unless it is caught in the headlights. These tiny dots in the air enter the breathing tube and inflame the lining of the lung. This fine dust can either cause such inflammation\u00a0directly\u00a0or lead to allergies that are commonly caused by house dust mites. These are very small insects that are found in bedlinen and that eat skin flakes. People can become allergic to this insect\u2019s faeces.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Furthermore, there are a number of plants such as the\u00a0sticky-weed\u00a0and species of the thistle plant that can cause allergies. Cats can also be the cause of allergies for many people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dr\u00a0Balzan\u00a0explained that, like in other years, the prevalence of allergies has been high and\u00a0will remain so. \u201cOn the basis of number of people visiting the\u00a0hospital, I can say that the situation has remained more or less the same,\u201d said the consultant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How can we\u00a0prevent\u00a0these\u00a0diseases? Dr\u00a0Balzan\u00a0explained that in the case of air pollution the source needs to be tackled and the source in Malta is primarily cars with diesel engines. Having said this, although petrol cars have a catalytic converter, they still pollute during the first quarter of an hour until they warm up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On an individual level, one\u00a0could\u00a0undergo a number of allergy tests, both skin and blood tests,\u00a0at hospital, and if one is found to be allergic to something, the doctors would advise a course of action. To avoid house dust mites, the advice is to change the bedlinen as often as possible and\u00a0wash it or boil it at 60 degrees\u00a0Celcius. This would kill off the small insects. Curtains and carpets also have a tendency to accumulate house dust mite faeces.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With regard to pollens, Dr\u00a0Balzan\u00a0said that it is difficult to protect\u00a0oneself from them and the only advice one can give, though impractical,\u00a0is to stay indoors as much as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On a general note, Dr\u00a0Balzan\u00a0concluded that when Government is deciding on policies that concern air quality and traffic, it should ensure that clean air is a priority.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cIn this country,\u00a0we need to\u00a0take\u00a0note of\u00a0the air we breathe\u00a0and make sure that this air is clean.\u201d\u00a0These words were spoken by Dr Martin\u00a0Balzan, a consultant on Respiratory Medicine and General […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1319,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[58],"issuem_issue_categories":[9],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1323"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1325,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1323\/revisions\/1325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}