KARACHI, Jan 17: The first-ever diabetes and endocrine centre in Lyari was inaugurated by Sindh health minister Maj-Gen Ahsan Ahmed on Thursday at the Lyari General Hospital.
The centre will provide facility to the patients with diabetes and other hormonal ailments as thyroid disorders, short stature, infertility, hirsutism, hypogonadism, gynaecomastia.
On this occasion, the minister urged the medical community to realise their responsibilities towards the ailing masses, particularly those living in the remote areas.
He said the government was fully committed to address their needs, with particular reference to health-care and was making allout efforts to provide health-care facilities within its available means.
The minister lauded the efforts of Dr M. Zaman Shaikh for the establishment of the centre with the cooperation of the private sector.
He emphasised that awareness, early detection was very important in the diabetic care.
“Our goal should be prevention, which is the only solution to the this menace. Early detection and early treatment should be our goal,” the minister said.
“Very often there are conditions when patients if properly informed of the same can prevent severe repercussion of diseases,” he further remarked.
Earlier, the speakers expressed the hope that a large number of the poor patients in the locality and its adjoining areas would benefit from the modern facilities of the centre.
At the conclusion, Dr I. S Burki, chairman Pakistan TB Advisory Board and in charge of Chest Department LGH welcomed the guest.
The ceremony was attended by the senior officials of the Civil Hospital, Dow Medical College and Lyari General Hospital including Professor Elahi Soomro, Professor Noshad, Dr Sorab Hakeem, Mukhtar Khawaja and other senior faculty members.
The minister called upon professors and doctors, dealing with patients afflicted by the lethal disease, to devote more time during the physical examination as any lack of interest by them to cure the problem neutralizes the impact of the establishment of specialized clinics, add agencies.
Ahsan Ahmad also underscored the need for translating the Urdu brochure for the guidance of diabetic patients into Sindhi and other regional languages so that they may able to reap benefits from them.
Referring to the role of philanthropists in the noble cause of poor patients at number of public hospitals, he said they had been playing a significant role in solacing the plight of needy patients.
However, the only thing they need to be assured is proper and judicious utilisation of their donations.
He also cited examples of private sector’s contribution in the establishment of a burns ward at a cost of Rs40 million at the National Institute of Child Health Karachi and a cardiac ward at the Sindh government Hospital Liaquatabad.
Associate Prof of the hospital, Dr. Zaman Sheikh said that the lethal disease of diabetes had assumed an alarming proportions globally as some 35 million people had been suffering from the problem.
The only option to handle the problem lies in handling it with better perception and by observing maximum precautions prescribed by doctors, he observed.
The centre, first of its kind established at any institution operating under Sindh health department, will particularly be of solace for people suffering from conditions as infertility, growth hormone deficiency, hirsutism (hairy growth on female face), hypogonadism, gynaecomastia and above all diabetes.
Dr. Zaman said that 15 per cent of all patients attending the OPD at Lyari General Hospital on a daily basis, comprise those suffering from the above mentioned conditions.
According to him, delay in diagnosis and treatment of many otherwise curable endocrinological diseases was a cause of constant distress for patients.
He specifically referred to the plight of children, belonging to the low-income group suffering from varied stages of hypo-thyroid as Cretin and Myxoedema was leading to their permanent mental and physical retardation.
“Many of the local school-going children appearing to be physically and mentally abnormal could be efficiently addressed through timely medication, which is again quite cost-effective,” he said.
With reference to children reflecting low IQ levels and thus emerging to be slow learners, the doctor said their condition further deteriorates due to certain physical manifestations as pot belly, coarse face features and at times even partial deafness, he reminded.
The situation turns the poor child getting socially isolated with severe repercussions on his state of mind and social behaviour, Dr. Sheikh warned.
Referring to Growth Hormone Deficiency, another of the major glandular ailments noticed among many of local children, the doctor said short stature till the age of 18 could be easily treated.
Children and adolescents suffering from Growth Hormone Deficiency are administered growth hormone injections helping them to overcome their physical defect, which otherwise often lead to psychological complexities among the effectees.
The injections, he said, were easily available but were expensive and make it necessary for drug banks in the public sector hospitals to have enough stocks of the same.
The endocrinologist also warned that children who are over-weight (fat) besides having a strong family history are vulnerable to special category of diabetes, termed as MODY (Maturity Onset Diabetes of Youth).
These individuals can usually live without insulin through regular exercise, diet control and oral drugs, he said reminding that those with Type-I Diabetes Mellitus have to necessarily rely on insulin.
