COPD: the forgotten anti-smoking plan

“Fighting cancer is good, not forgetting COPD is better”. This rant pushed by the association BPCO is addressed to the government. It echoes the health bill primarily focused on preventing the dangers of smoking, but which fails to prevent Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a severe form of bronchitis that affects the breath and causes irreversible damage to the lungs. A serious pathology, frequent but poorly understood. More than 2 in 3 patients are not diagnosed.

World COPD Day, which took place on Wednesday 19 November, and the symposium organized on 12 November at the Palais du Luxembourg by theCOPD association were an opportunity to alert the general public and healthcare professionals to the lack of political interest in the COPD epidemic. “Marisol Touraine has decided to make prevention one of the pillars of her health bill. And, once again, COPD is one of the great forgotten ones in our health policy ”, deplores Dr Frédéric Le Guillou, pulmonologist and new president of the BPCO association, contacted by Why actor.

Listen to Dr Frédéric Le Guillou, president of the BPCO association: ” There isn’t a single word in the health bill about COPD… ”

The extension of Prado to COPD, recently announced by the Health Insurance, is one of the points raised during the conference. This support program supports people returning to their homes after hospitalization. But for Frédéric Le Guillou, there is a complete ambivalence between what the Health Insurance promises and its actions: “Despite the pressing demands of the medical community, the very favorable opinion of the HAS, the Health Insurance still refuses to rate (and therefore allow their reimbursement, editor’s note) certain acts of exercise retraining that can be delivered on an outpatient basis by healthcare professionals to patients with COPD, which would improve their quality of life, prevent complications and would be in the objective of the outpatient shift in management chronic diseases desired by the ministry ”.

Listen to Dr Frédéric Le Guillou, president of the BPCO association: “At a time when the Minister tells us that we must take an ambulatory turn to reduce health costs, I cannot understand why there is no reimbursement for this act. “

Three pillars of prevention
The association also recalls that smoking is not the only cause of COPD. There are three pillars of prevention and management of COPD: “smoking cessation is one of them, but there is also physical activity and drug treatments. But if we forget one of these three pillars, prevention works much less well, ”explains Frédéric Le Guillou. However, the health bill only talks about tobacco, and we therefore forget the other factors of the disease. For example, people often tend to link their shortness of breath to their physical activity and therefore to play less sport. But this is precisely what should not be done, because the decrease in physical activity worsens the shortness of breath in the patient with COPD. So it’s a vicious circle. Finally, the BPCO association also recalls that people who work in the foundry, textile industry or steel industry are highly exposed to COPD.

Listen to Dr Frédéric Le Guillou, pulmonologist and president of the BPCO association: ” High-level athletes train constantly but as soon as they decrease their training rhythm, they drop in performance. It’s the same principle for people with COPD… ”

Improve communication
The objective of this conference was also to improve communication and prevention at all levels, for doctors and patients, as well as for public authorities. “The acronym COPD does not mean anything to the general public, and is not attractive to politicians. We must therefore find other ways to inform and communicate about the disease. This involves dialogue between the patient and the doctor, but also between health professionals and the public authorities, which in turn must lead prevention campaigns, ”explains Dr Le Guillou. The latter intends in particular to insist on the need to display prevention messages related to COPD on the famous neutral packages, the flagship measure of the health bill.

1 in 5 French people have heard of COPD
Each year, COPD causes more than 100,000 hospitalizations and 17,500 deaths. It is therefore a major public health issue. However, according to a recent survey, 86% of French people say they are not affected by this pathology. Only one in five French people has heard of COPD! What are the reasons for this ignorance? “The lack of information and prevention on the part of the public authorities obviously contributes to this dramatic observation. But patients also have a nasty habit of underestimating their symptoms, because it is a sneaky disease that progresses extremely slowly. “, recalls Dr Le Guillou.
The doctor also deplores a certain ostrich policy. “If we talk about COPD, people immediately think of tobacco: they get scared or feel guilty. They therefore prefer to forget that this disease exists. “More generally, the pulmonologist is alarmed by a lack of awareness and interest in pathologies concerning an organ which is” neither an affective organ like the heart, nor a reflection organ like the brain. But the lung is an organ that allows us to breathe.

Listen to Dr Frédéric Le Guillou, president of the BPCO association: “Respiratory disease causes other complications: osteoporosis, cardiovascular disorders, depressive syndromes …”