A scientific education and promotion event by a Chinese team promoting knowledge of a lung condition has been honored by Guinness World Records.
The event, which was recognized as the largest online video chain of people passing and blowing a pinwheel, was achieved by the early anti-fibrosis, easy breath pulmonary fibrosis awareness China campaign team, in Shanghai on September 19.
The campaign was to raise public awareness on the breath difficulty of patients with pulmonary fibrosis, how the disease affects their quality of life, and also promote the importance of early diagnosis, treatment, and anti-fibrosis measures for people with lung problems.
Interstitial lung disease (ILD) has complicated and unclear causes, and of which the public have little awareness. The disease can cause scarring of the lungs, which in turn leads to stiffness in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe and get oxygen into the bloodstream, eventually causing lung damage.
ILD is an irreversible disease and pulmonary fibrosis is a reflection of ILD in the terminal stage. It can negatively impact lung function and life quality and cause life-threatening conditions.
For one type of ILD called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the five-year survival rate is less than 30 percent and the average survival for patients in acute cases is only 2.2 months, much shorter than many other cancers.
Experts said innovative medicine and patient education are important to bring benefits to patients.
The nation's first patient educational pamphlet on pulmonary fibrosis was released recently to promote scientific and authoritative information and knowledge on the disease.
Dr Xu Zuojun from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital said professional training should also be enhanced to arouse doctors' awareness of ILD, whose symptoms are not significant, and carry out multidisciplinary consultation in outpatient service to avoid missed or incorrect diagnoses.
