Some 47 posts of professors, associate professors and assistant professors have been lying vacant at the newly established respiratory medicine units at 13 public medical college and hospitals, health experts said at a discussion yesterday.

They said hospitals must have respiratory medicine units, as 20 percent of the patients in the medicine wards at different hospitals suffer from chest diseases. But if the posts remain vacant, patients would be deprived of proper healthcare.

An estimated 5 crore people are suffering from different types of lung diseases in the country and 70 lakh of them are suffering from asthma, they added.

The Asthma Association Bangladesh organised the discussion at a city hotel to mark the World Asthma Day and the 14th Annual Scientific Conference ofthe association.

The theme of the World Asthma Day this year is 'You can control your asthma.'

Using modern medicine, an asthma patient could control his or her disease, the experts said and called for raising awareness in this regard.

Some 13,000 community healthcare providers who are going to be appointed soon at the community clinics should be trained to manage respiratory problems, so that people can receive this service from the community clinics, said Dr Sharfuddin Ahmed, secretary general of Bangladesh Medical Association.

Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque said he would take steps to appoint doctors to the respiratory medicine units of the 13 medical colleges immediately.

The ministry would find out the loopholes in the health services, he said and urged the doctors to give more time to the patients.

State Minister for Health Mujibur Rahman Fakir, President of Asthma Association Prof Mirza Mohammad Hiron, Vice President Dr Biswas Akhtar Hossain, Secretary General Dr Sayedul Islam and Joint Secretary Dr Narayan Chandra Datta also spoke.