As the world commemorated the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) on November 14, a specialist physician, Dr Washington Chiguye from Gaborone Private Hospital says that the disease is not prevalent in Botswana.

He said that the most common cause of this disease is smoking. Ninety-five percent of patients who have it are smokers and only a small group of people get it through occupational exposure. According to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), COPD is used to describe prolonged airflow obstruction that is mainly associated with chronic bronchitis and emphysema. The lung disease is said to be a leading health problem which causes significant disability. Chiguye said it is not a common condition in Botswana but there is a need to make people more aware.

Chiguye said that the disease is not so significant because not so many people are smokers. He said more and more young women have joined the fashionable trend of smoking.

He said that COPD must have racial tendency, as his patients are neither indigenous nor black African but are predominantly coloured (mixed race by south African apartheid classification), white and some Indian. "Almost all are originally from South Africa," he said. He recommended a strong anti-smoking campaign as the primary prevention. That would mean, he said, no smoking in hotels, public buildings, in houses or restaurants. He said that in some countries in Europe people are not allowed to smoke inside bars or nightclubs.

Chiguye advised patients to stop smoking. He said that by stopping to smoke, it stops further deterioration of the lungs. A patient with COPD runs short of breath, coughs more and suffers more breathlessness than other people. He said they use broncho-dilators as treatment or steroid inhalers to reduce inflammation and swelling of the airways. The medication makes the lungs work better. However, if one does not stop smoking it is not useful.

The GSK Territory manager, Olefile Setilo explained that COPD is an irreversible condition that generally attacks people over the age of 40. He said it is a progressive respiratory disease which affects victims in long term. Setilo said that it attacks the lungs and destroys the small airways.