KARACHI, Dec 23: Speakers at a scientific moot on Saturday stressed the need for taking initiatives leading to advances in the teaching, service and research in the filed of neurology in the country.

They were of the view that promotion of academic foundations of neurology through applied research would help address the local relevant needs, while on the other hand there was need to extend monetary support and promote public health approaches to neurology and create awareness among people, with special emphasis of stroke (Falij), which was going to be number one killer disease of future.

The speakers who are experts in neurology from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Italy were sharing their experiences pertaining to neurology, with an objective to update delegates and other participants of an “international neurology update”, organised by Pakistan Society of Neurology, Pakistan Stroke Society and Falij Control Programme at the Liaquat National Hospital.

Summing up the presentations of first two sessions, Dr Farrukh S. Khan, chairman of the conference organising committee, said that s need to invest more money and allocate funds to development of manpower and infrastructure related to neurology in the country.

He said that as per the WHO statements stroke (Falij) will become number one killer diseases by 2020 in the world. Neurology has become an important clinical and professional component as neurological problems were emerging as very common problem, specially the stroke (Falij or Paralyses), he said, adding that Pakistan at present for a population of about 160 million has about 100 neurologists, which showed a great deficiency in the country’s health sector.

Dr Shakir Hussain from India said that stroke risks and care in India were similar to those in Pakistan and Bangladesh, but a very little research had been done so far in that direction, which should be a matter of concern for policy makers as well as medicine practitioners.

He said that a number of new therapies were available globally to potentially reverse the neurological deficits in patients, which included clot dissolving drugs which could be given by veins and some time directly into the artery of brain.

Dr Mazharul Mannan of Bangladesh discussed the situation related to stroke in his country and remarked that the problem was not very much different from that of Pakistan or India. He also shared developments of medical infrastructure in BD and related difficulties as well.

Dr John Nichols, a well known neurologist from Italy, talked about research being done on regeneration of nerve cells after injury to the spinal cord.

The update on neurology conference was inaugurated on Friday night by the secretary of the Sindh Health department, Dr Noshad Shaikh. Neurology is a rapidly evolving field with new and exciting treatments and interventions that can potentially make a big difference in a neurological patient’s life and what we need is a support from the government to train more people and to have sufficient infrastructure so that we can all benefit from the developments, it was largely expressed by the speaker of the inaugural ceremony.