Mumbai’s pulmonologists have linked a worrying rise in cases of fibrotic lung disease hypersensitivity pneumonitis or bird breeder’s lung to the city’s exploding pigeon population.
While till a decade ago, the hypersensitivity pneumonitis cases would mostly involve people who worked or lived in close proximity to birds — veterinarians, employees tasked with cleaning kabutar khanas (where pigeons are kept) and those who fed birds or resided around bird-feeding points — now people from all walks of life and from all across the city are being.
City doctors say there has been a fivefold increase in cases of hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which can cause irreversible scarring of lungs. And in nearly all cases there is a common link — exposure to pigeon droppings
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