mumbai city doctors are baffled with the increasing number of patients with respiratory ailments requiring hospitalisation while they say there is around 2530 increase in cases of upper respiratory ailments a good 24 of these patients required urgent hospitalisationfor instance the bombay hospital at marine lines treated three patients in the last 10 days who had to be rushed to the intensive care unit after their lungs gave away these patients had otherwise healthy respiratory systems but suddenly developed problems and had to be put on ventilator said dean dr s jayaram we have lost quite a few lives because of the same problem in the last couple of months he addedthe reason healthy individuals are falling prey to respiratory problems is beyond the understanding of experts a chest expert from a suburban hospital said that most of the samples were testing negative for seasonal viruses or bacteria these samples do not even have a trace of h1n1 it is really worrisome to not be able to find out what could be causing the cough or the respiratory problems said the doctor he added that not only had cases of upper respiratory chest infections increased but there were also significant cases where the lung was damagedphysicians across the city have spoken of the mysterious cough that refuses to subside even after days and months of treatment however dr amita athavale who heads kem hospitals chest medicine department said that it was time for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease copd patients to monitor their health conditions they must be prepared to stepup their doses anyone with a dip in the peak expiratory flow rate maximum speed of expiration must rush to doctor and not resort to selfmedication she added athavale said that the november rains could have contributed to a heightened level of mould in the air making it tougher for patients of respiratory ailmentsthe worst affected though are children and so pd hinduja hospital in mahim is initiating a study to understand the effectiveness of asthma drugs in managing the ailment most patients had otherwise healthy respiratory systems yet suffered from lung failure and had to be put on ventilator