Re: Pakistan-Mysterious disease strikes children
I trust this article more than any of the previous ones. This seems like a pretty accurate evaluation of what is going on there. I might put a " - genetic disorders and malnutrition" onto the end of the thread title.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...ren-suffering-from-genetic-disorder-429-hs-03
KARACHI: The Sindh health minister with a team of senior paediatricians paid a visit to a poverty-ridden locality of the metropolis, Rehri Goth, on Wednesday to get first-hand knowledge about the reports that children of the area had become victim of some mysterious ailment.
As a result of the visit, four children of Rehri Goth, aged between four and 10 years, were rushed to the Civil Hospital Karachi, where doctors would evaluate them clinically for treatment.
The head of the paediatric ward-II in the CHK, Prof Iqbal Memon, told Dawn that one of the children was admitted to the intensive-care unit while others were admitted for evaluation and treatment for severe weaknesses, including nutritional weaknesses, anaemia and slow growth.
There had been reports about Rehri Goth, a neglected population of about 30,000 people in Ibrahim Hyderi, that it was haunted by some mysterious diseases.
Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed and his team of doctors visited the locality to know whether it was an outbreak of some disease or something else that made the area children sick.
The minister and his team met and interviewed several persons, who had gathered along with their sick children at a house in Khalifa Para, Rerhi Goth.
Later, he told newsmen that there was nothing mysterious behind the children’s ailment.
He said the children were the victim of genetic disorder, rickets, muscular dystrophy, thalassaemia and other diseases due to ignorance of their parents and the overall environmental and unhygienic conditions.
He said he had interviewed parents and saw the children along with a team of senior doctors, who were of the view that the disorders could have been averted provided the families had the opportunities for any improved education, health and financial resources.
‘However, it is never too late and the government will help these families of fishermen,’ he added.
The health minister said that a camp would be set up again at Rehri Goth on Thursday to ascertain the exact number of children affected by genetic disorders or inherited diseases.
Some independent social and health workers told Dawn that though the disease problems in children existed for last many years, it could be highlighted only in recent months.
‘We need free ambulance service and free physiotherapy for our affected children,’ said some parents. ‘The government should ensure the establishment of fully-fledged health-care centres with doctors and equipped with machines and medicines in our vicinity and other coastal areas as well,’ they added.
Health Secretary Syed Hashim Raza Zaidi, Dr Iqbal Memon, Dr Zulfiqar Bhutta, Dr Abdul Majid, Dr A. D. Sajnani, Dr Saeed Qureshi, Prof Juned Ashraf accompanied the health minister.
The medical superintendent of the CHK, Dr Qureshi, said that a team of doctors had already visited the area and asked the NGOs working in the area to ask the families concerned to bring their children to the CHK for clinical investigations, but no positive development could be noticed.
Dr Iqbal Memon said the affected children were suffering from mental retardation, nutritional weakness, muscular dystrophy, vitamin D resisting rickets, genetic brain dystrophy and infections. ‘I am afraid that a couple of children also suffer from bone dysphasia,’ he said.
Dr Bhutta of the Aga Khan University said that such diseases were also common in other villages, which were facing pathetic health and education infrastructure, across the province and the country. This could be attributed largely to inter-family marriages and there is a need to educate parents on the subject, he added.
Meanwhile, the health minister said in a press release that the treatment and physiotherapy would be provided to all the sick children of Rehri Goth
I trust this article more than any of the previous ones. This seems like a pretty accurate evaluation of what is going on there. I might put a " - genetic disorders and malnutrition" onto the end of the thread title.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...ren-suffering-from-genetic-disorder-429-hs-03
KARACHI: The Sindh health minister with a team of senior paediatricians paid a visit to a poverty-ridden locality of the metropolis, Rehri Goth, on Wednesday to get first-hand knowledge about the reports that children of the area had become victim of some mysterious ailment.
As a result of the visit, four children of Rehri Goth, aged between four and 10 years, were rushed to the Civil Hospital Karachi, where doctors would evaluate them clinically for treatment.
The head of the paediatric ward-II in the CHK, Prof Iqbal Memon, told Dawn that one of the children was admitted to the intensive-care unit while others were admitted for evaluation and treatment for severe weaknesses, including nutritional weaknesses, anaemia and slow growth.
There had been reports about Rehri Goth, a neglected population of about 30,000 people in Ibrahim Hyderi, that it was haunted by some mysterious diseases.
Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed and his team of doctors visited the locality to know whether it was an outbreak of some disease or something else that made the area children sick.
The minister and his team met and interviewed several persons, who had gathered along with their sick children at a house in Khalifa Para, Rerhi Goth.
Later, he told newsmen that there was nothing mysterious behind the children’s ailment.
He said the children were the victim of genetic disorder, rickets, muscular dystrophy, thalassaemia and other diseases due to ignorance of their parents and the overall environmental and unhygienic conditions.
He said he had interviewed parents and saw the children along with a team of senior doctors, who were of the view that the disorders could have been averted provided the families had the opportunities for any improved education, health and financial resources.
‘However, it is never too late and the government will help these families of fishermen,’ he added.
The health minister said that a camp would be set up again at Rehri Goth on Thursday to ascertain the exact number of children affected by genetic disorders or inherited diseases.
Some independent social and health workers told Dawn that though the disease problems in children existed for last many years, it could be highlighted only in recent months.
‘We need free ambulance service and free physiotherapy for our affected children,’ said some parents. ‘The government should ensure the establishment of fully-fledged health-care centres with doctors and equipped with machines and medicines in our vicinity and other coastal areas as well,’ they added.
Health Secretary Syed Hashim Raza Zaidi, Dr Iqbal Memon, Dr Zulfiqar Bhutta, Dr Abdul Majid, Dr A. D. Sajnani, Dr Saeed Qureshi, Prof Juned Ashraf accompanied the health minister.
The medical superintendent of the CHK, Dr Qureshi, said that a team of doctors had already visited the area and asked the NGOs working in the area to ask the families concerned to bring their children to the CHK for clinical investigations, but no positive development could be noticed.
Dr Iqbal Memon said the affected children were suffering from mental retardation, nutritional weakness, muscular dystrophy, vitamin D resisting rickets, genetic brain dystrophy and infections. ‘I am afraid that a couple of children also suffer from bone dysphasia,’ he said.
Dr Bhutta of the Aga Khan University said that such diseases were also common in other villages, which were facing pathetic health and education infrastructure, across the province and the country. This could be attributed largely to inter-family marriages and there is a need to educate parents on the subject, he added.
Meanwhile, the health minister said in a press release that the treatment and physiotherapy would be provided to all the sick children of Rehri Goth