Washington, Sept 17: New recommendations for the diagnosis, management and prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) have been made by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).

The latest standards lay stress on the importance of proper diagnosis, evaluation of the disease’s severity, and better understanding of co-morbidities to improve treatment of disease.

 “This is an absolutely up-to-date summary of all the available evidence on the diagnosis, management and prevention of COPD,” said Klaus Rabe, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the report.

According to the report, the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. is COPD.

Currently, COPD affects 15-25 percent of adults over 40 years, says Dr. Rabe, of the Department of Pulmonology at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Still, in spite of the prevalence of COPD as a public health threat, it is relatively unknown and is also ignored by the public as well as by the health officials.

The new standards show the evolution of current scientific and medical thought.

“One of the most important points is that we now say COPD is preventable and treatable. There are steps we can take to prevent it, and it is no longer viewed with therapeutic nihilism,” Dr. Rabe added.

Unfortunately, regardless of the significant progress made in the understanding and management of the disease, it is the behavioural and cultural factors that have made the disease reach the top-five list of killer diseases worldwide.

The most commonly encountered risk factors for COPD in the developed world are- cigarette smoking and second-hand smoke exposure.

In developing countries, the case is different. COPD chiefly arises from long-term exposure to smoke from biomass fuel used for indoor cooking and heating.

Women who suffer from the impact of indoor exposures in developing countries, are more likely to die of the disease than men.

“The prevalence and burden of COPD are projected to increase in the coming decades due to continued exposure to COPD risk factors and the changing age structure of the world’s population,” wrote the researchers.

The executive summary of the updated GOLD report appears in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. (With Inputs from ANI)