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COPD - a global problem

In 2018  328 million people were estimated to have COPD (1) and the same paper claimed that by 2033 it would be the leading cause of death.

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The WHO estimated 3.23 million deaths from COPD in 2019. (2)

  1. Quaderi, S. A., & Hurst, J. R. (2018). The unmet global burden of COPD. Global Health, Epidemiology and Genomics, 3. https://doi.org/10.1017/gheg.2018.1

 

  1. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease-(copd)

UK NHS BURDEN

The NHS reports 1.2m COPD sufferers in the UK, and that 8% of emergency admissions are for COPD (3). Excluding Covid data, the King's Fund reports 25m A and E visits per annum (4) . These data together suggest around 1.7m COPD admissions per annum.  Not all of these will require emergency treatment.

(3) https://transform.england.nhs.uk/key-tools-and-info/digital-playbooks/respiratory-digital-playbook/digital-service-to-manage-high-risk-chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease-copd-patients/(4) https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/whats-going-on-with-ae-waiting-times#

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