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From Nottingham to Nepal – researchers’ international exchange programme to help improve a population’s lung health
Researchers from Nottingham’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) are progressing a joint mission with experts in Nepal to help improve the lung health of the nation’s population.
Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia approximately 4,600 miles away from Nottingham, and despite its global image as the home of the Himalayas with the association of clean mountain air, some parts of the nation are among the most polluted regions in the world.
In fact, the World Health Organization has cited air pollution in Nepal as a serious environmental and public health risk.
Within the capital city, Kathmandu, poor lung health is largely caused by people smoking tobacco, along with exposure to pollution from traffic and industry. However, more than 80% of the country’s population live in rural areas of Nepal.
Here, the major cause of lung disease is people using traditional cooking stoves that burn biomass fuel inside poorly ventilated homes.
The Nottingham-based chest medicine experts have been working closely with physicians at Dhulikhel Hospital, Nepal, and the team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Kathmandu University, as part of a two-way exchange programme.
During the latest phase of the research programme in March, Dr Binaya KC, Associate Professor and Head of the department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kathmandu, helped to co-ordinate a genetic study in a new Nepalese research cohort of 5,000 individuals.
Once complete, the Nepalese cohort will be the first from the country which will assess genetic factors contributing to lung function and risk of respiratory disease in the Nepali population.
Professor Ian Hall, Director of the NIHR Nottingham BRC, who has been leading the Nepal lung health research project, commented:
“When the university Medical School based at Nottingham University Hospitals was established, its original purpose was to mainly improve health for the local population. However, over the years we have increasingly focused on global health issues.
“The largest burden of diseases such as COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) – a chronic respiratory disease – won’t be in Nottingham, it will be in low income countries like Nepal where public health interventions have not reduced the exposure to the extent they have done in the UK.
“Not only has our joint research helped to design health services within Nepal but our active exchange programme has helped build capacity and exchange views and expertise.”
He added: “To understand and make a difference in terms of healthcare for people with these lung conditions, we must collaborate, and we are lucky to have links established between Nottingham and Nepal, which are mutually beneficial.”
The research programme between Nottingham and Nepal has also helped raise awareness of issues relating to respiratory diseases in the country.
Dr Binaya KC, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kathmandu, said: “There are many sources of poor lung health in Nepal, and household air pollution is one of the biggest contributing factors.
“In rural areas, most households rely on traditional cooking stoves and incomplete combustion of biomass leads to high concentrations of Carbon Monoxide and particulate matter. This can have serious implications for people’s health.”
He added: “Our collaboration with Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre has enabled us to take research into lung health to a level we could not have imagined before. It has added great value and so helped the health of our people. The collaboration has including access to laboratory facilities in Nottingham to conduct biological analysis of lung exposures.”
The project has included the development of more efficient cooking stoves using the input from engineers at the University of Kathmandu, led by Binaya KC. These have been distributed to people living in remote rural areas, reducing exposure to both harmful particulate matter and Carbon Monoxide.