The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Cadaveric donor transplantation stressed
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 18 — Close to 1 lakh persons suffer from the problem of kidney failure per year in our country. Of these, only 5-10 per cent receive treatment. Fewer still, in the range of 4,000 to 5,000 persons, are able to get the benefit of kidney transplant. Giving these statistics, the delegates participating in the 12th annual conference of the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation (ISOT-2000) which began here today, emphasised on the need to promote organ donation in our country.

Delivering the inaugural address at the Bhargava auditorium, PGI , Prof I.C Pathak, former director of the institute, said although the passage of Human Organ Transplant Bill by Parliament in 1994 has led to an increase in the number of transplants from cadaveric donors, the number is still very small and this activity is restricted to only a few centres in the country.

He lamented that the Bill has yet to have the desired effect of discouraging paid organ transplants from unrelated living donors. Prof Pathak pointed out that many patients from the affluent countries of the Middle East, Europe and Canada have been coming to India to get a kidney transplant after purchasing kidneys from the poor in India.

He urged the delegates to promote cadaveric donor transplantation, by which organs from brain dead patients can be removed and transplanted into the recipients suffering from various organ failures to save lives. Dr Pathak also stressed the need to initiate measures to educate the common man on the concept of brain stem death, which will go a long way in increasing the number of organ donors in the country.

Dr Sundaram Hariharan from the USA also emphasised on the need to generate public awareness about organ transplantation. According to him, organ transplantation is the cheapest and the best possible option available to a patient in terms of life expectancy, cost and quality of life. He pointed out that the technique not only saves a person’s life, but also enables him to get back to work and earn a living for his family.

Talking about the development of chronic rejections, Dr Hariharan pointed out that the result of kidney transplant from a live related donor are superior to a cadaver donor due to better tissue matching. Hence, the chances of chronic rejection are lower in patients receiving the kidneys from their close relatives.

Sir Peter Morris from Oxford, UK, delivered the JM Patel oration on `` “Renal transplantation: problems and prospects’’. He talked at length about the main problems of rejections, infections and development of cancers after kidney transplantation. He concluded that in future cloning of human organs for transplantation in the laboratory might become a reality.

Sir Morris also talked about Xenotransplantation — the experiment on the possible future use of organs from animals for transplantation into humans to overcome the shortage. But that is still a long way to come to India.

Dr Jeremy Chapman from Sydney said the ability of transplant centres to offer this effective treatment is limited by the availability of donor organs and tissues and many people are still dying owing to lack of possible donors. He pointed out that the success rate of kidney transplant from brothers and sisters where tissues are identical is as high as 90 per cent and the life span of the kidney varies from 10-20 years and in some cases even extends up to 25 years. But in case the donation is from a parent to a child or vice versa, the success rate is just about 50 per cent and life span is 10 years and in case of cadaver donors, the success rate is 10-20 per cent and the transplant will last 4-7 years.

Dr Chapman said that in countries like Australia law prevents doctors who diagnose brain stem death to get involved with those who are responsible for organ transplantation.This is just to ensure that their views are not biased for those doing organ transplants will always be looking for donors. He pointed out that in all countries there is a very stringent criteria to certify brain death. Such a death is certified after a patient is thoroughly examined two times at an interval of atleast six hours by a team of doctors incluing an approved neurologist or a neurosurgeon, the treating doctor, an independent specialist nominated by the Medical Superintendent. No member of the transplant team is part of the committee lest he or she could influence the decision on certifying brain death.

Dr M Bhandari from Lucknow highlighted the need to educate the neurologists and neuro-surgeons on one hand and the general public on the other. The doctors should be able to share the news of brain stem death with the attendants of the patient and get their consent for doing the surgery for removing the organs. Keeping in view the large number of road accidents every year, he also called upon people to become organ donors and in such cases the process will be much faster as no consent will be required as in his wish he would have pledged the organ or the near-relative acting on his or her behalf after death. He stated that the cost of the surgery is approximately Rs 1 lakh if the donor is a relative, otherwise it varies between Rs 2-3 lakh.

Dr M Suthanthiran from the USA spoke on the possibility of manipulating the immune system of our body to ensure that the transplanted organ is accepted and a state of immune tolerance achieved. Dr V Rao from the USA spoke on liver diseases due to viruses in kidney transplant patients and its treatment. He emphasised on the role of prevention of Hepatitis B and C viral infections before transplantation is done. This was followed by a symposium on prevention and treatment of rejections.

The appeal of the experts is that ‘‘Do not take your organs to heaven because they know we need it here.’’

ADMINISTRATION

DM order on firearms, shops
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 18 — Carrying of firearms in public, even by licence holders, has been banned following an order issued by Mr M. Ramsekhar, District Magistrate. Any breach of it can be punishable under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

The order shall not apply to the police, military or para-military personnel and other government servants if called upon to carry firearms in connection with their official duty.

In the order, the DM observes that some members of the public have been seen moving around with small weapons tucked inside the waist-belt for show-off and intimidation and the carrying of weapons openly by the licence holders has created panic in the public. As such, there is every apprehension of breach of peace and disturbance of public tranquility, besides grave danger to human life and safety and damage to public property by this act.

This order shall come into force from February 19 till April 18.

Meanwhile, in a separate order the District Magistrate observed that commercial establishments, shopkeepers engaged in the business of restaurants, pubs, wine shops, discos, clubs and vendors sitting by roadside and on public places operating till late night are causing annoyance and disturbing public peace and tranquility, leading to a harmful influence on public order.

Keeping in view the above facts, he has ordered that the running of commercial establishments, shops etc. in trades, services such as running of restaurants, pubs, wine shops, discos, clubs and the sale of goods by hawkers on roadside and on the public places will be prohibited between 11.30 p.m. and 4.30 a.m. This order comes into force with immediate effect till April 4.

Draw of lots for flats on Feb 24
From Our Correspondent

SAS NAGAR, Feb 18 — A draw of lots for 696 LIG flats built by PUDA in Sector 66 here will be held on February 24.

PUDA officials said here yesterday that 4,633 applications had been received for the duplex flats under the scheme. The applicants’ list would be displayed in the PUDA office in Phase I here for inviting objections till February 21.

The flats have been priced at Rs 2.27 lakh. Each flat has a covered area of 274 sq ft and comprises one room with a provision for expansion by another room.

AMO denied promotion
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 18 — Dr Kuldip Singh, AMO, Government Ayurvedic Dispensary, Kumbhra (Ropar), has been denied promotion as District Ayurvedic and Unani Officer — a post lying vacant since October 1, 1993, and is to be filled from amongst the Scheduled Caste candidates.

This post was held by Dr Rajeshwari Devi on the basis of a backward class certificate, which was later found to be fake. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had allowed her to continue in the post till her retirement on September 30, 1993. The High Court had said that Dr Kuldip Singh should be promoted as District Ayurvedic and Unani Officer from October 1, 1993, against the vacancy arising on the retirement of Dr Rajeshwari Devi. An SLP filed in the Supreme Court by the state government against the order was dismissed on July 11, 1996.

Dr Kuldip Singh also approached the Health Department repeatedly to give him the due promotion from October 1, 1993. The Health Department sought some advice from the Welfare Department on the issue. The necessary advice was conveyed to the Health Department a number of times with recommendation for the promotion of Dr Kuldip Singh. But the file is still shuttling between the two departments.

PUDA goes cyber
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Feb 18 — An interactive website of the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) has been launched. Apart from having information about PUDA and its activities, a Net surfer will now be able get reply of an enquiry through a separate mailbag facility created on the web.

To work out a comprehensive strategy to make the website popular, a meeting of the officials concerned of PUDA and the National Informatics Centre (NIC), besides a private agency involved in developing the website, was today called by the Chief Administrator of PUDA, Mr K.B.S. Sidhu.

Every mail received would be automatically acknowledged and a reply would be sent soon, said Mr Sidhu. Besides this, information on the development of urban estates, development and marketing of the government land under the optimum utilisation of vacant government land (OUVGL) scheme, special projects being undertaken in various urban estates of the PUDA, procedures and policy of granting licences to colonisers and procedures to buy commercial and residential sites would also be available at the click of a mouse.

The website (http//:www.puda.nic.in) had been designed to allow the Net users to download a prescribed application form of a housing scheme. Persons would be allowed to fill in the application forms downloaded from the site, but, with an additional fee equivalent to the cost of the brochures sold through banks.

To make non-resident Indians (NRIs) aware of the website, it had been decided to implement an integrated cyber media policy, wherein links to PUDA website would be maintained at popular news and property websites. To make available the particulars of colonisers who had been granted licence by PUDA, it had been decided that they would be provided connectivity through the website at a fee of Rs 1,000 per annum.