Advice to allergy, asthma patients: dust storm likely to continue today

The dust storm in the country is likely to continue on Thursday, therefore, asthma and allergy prone patients need to take extraordinary precautionary measures in order to avoid complications, said doctors and weather experts. A severe dust storm, in Saudi Arabia, led to hospitals receiving hundreds of patients of allergy/asthma daily. The dust storm and low visibility spread quickly to Baghdad, Iraq, through Kuwait. It is expected to end by coming Monday.
The dust storm has also hit Bahrain, Qatar and United Arab Emirates and is now in Pakistan creating health problems and low visibility is the cause of numerous road accidents. The current weather system will continue in Pakistan till Thursday evening said Director General (DG) Pakistan Metrological Department Arif Mehmood while talking to Business Recorder.
He said that the dusty winds began to blow from Iran towards the coastal areas of Balochistan and Sindh due to a low air pressure. The severe dust storm brought down visibility level to as low as 200 meters and disrupted domestic and international flight operations at various airports in the country, he said.
Dr Waseem Khawaja, a senior physician at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), said that in such weather, patients of Asthma and allergy need to keep inhalers and masks whenever they leave home. Due to increasing dust storm in the city the emergency of PIMS is receiving over 100 asthma and allergy patients daily, he said.