’Dickensian’ lung disease rates on the rise in UK pensioners

The number of people diagnosed with bronchiectasis, a lung condition thought to be a 'disease of the past', has risen considerably in the past decade and now affects more than 1% of UK pensioners, finds a new study by UCL, University College London Hospitals (UCLH) NHS Foundation Trust, Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Bronchiectasis is a disease in which the airways taking air into the lungs are damaged. It can be caused by a previous chest infection, weaknesses of the immune system and by conditions that cause inflammation of the airways such as rheumatoid arthritis. The damaged airways are less able to clear mucus and bacteria away, causing recurrent chest infections. The patients cough up mucus and blood, and develop shortness of breath and sometimes respiratory failure. The disease is incurable and although the resulting infections can be treated with antibiotics, resistant bacteria are becoming an increasing problem. The new research, published in the European Respiratory Journal, used anonymised GP records covering 14 million patients from across the UK to identify those with a diagnosis of bronchiectasis.