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July 22, 2001, Chandigarh, India
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Eye camp
inaugurated Chandigarh, July 21 Giving details, nodal officer, Dr Raj Bahadur, who is also the Medical Superintendent, said that in the first phase, the opthalmologists of GMCH-32 shall examine all school-children of the government schools in the city to identify various eye ailments. The first such camp, in this regard was inaugurated by Mrs Madhvi Kataria, Director, Social Welfare, in Government High School, Sarangpur. While appreciating the efforts of the State Resource Centre, Mrs Kataria lauded the efforts of Dr Raj Bahadur and Prof Sunandan Sood, Head of the Ophthalmology Department, GMCH-32. She emphasised the need to make everyone in the city aware about the government efforts in implementing this national programme. She said that the community rehabilitation workers, who have been recently trained, should become a vital link between the community and the State Resource Centre. She also inaugurated a mini exhibition on eye diseases. The school headmistress, Dr Brij Shukla, expressed gratitude to the Administration as well as the State Resource Centre for providing eye health care at the door step. Professor Sood assured that he and his team would workhard to eradicate visual disabilities from the city. He said that of the total 400 children examined in the camp today, 32 were found to be suffering from eye ailments. Giving details he said that vitamin A deficiency was present in 10 children, allergic conjuctivitis in five and refractive errors among seven
children. One child was with congenital cataract. Besides treatment, he assured that the resource centre or the NGOs would also provide spectacles for the children. Earlier, while welcoming the chief guest, Dr Raj Bahadur thanked the UT Administration for reposing confidence in the faculty of the State Resource Centre, GMCH for handling this prestigious national programme. |
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Symposium on preventable
blindness Chandigarh, July 21 The magnitude of blindness in our country is overwhelming. It is estimated that there are 12 million blind people in India, which accounts for one-fourth of all blind people in the world. WHO estimates that the number of blind people will double by 2020. Keeping in view these overwhelming numbers and a need to address this issue by expanding existing strategies for combating blindness in our country, the Inner Wheel Club of Chandigarh Midtown, in association with the Sanjivni Medical and Educational Trust and the SBI, Panjab University branch, organised this symposium on preventable blindness. Dr Amod Gupta, Prof and Head, Department of Ophthalmology, PGI, was the chief guest at the function. Dr Luthra, who has a background in preventive ophthalmology, says that as far as blindness due to preventable causes is concerned, India has a backlog of 15 to 20 years which will double in another 15 years, which means that adequate steps are required at various ends. In his lecture he discussed at length the four major causes of preventable blindness in India — cataract, trachoma, white glaucoma and vitamin A deficiency. ‘‘While vitamin A deficiency and trachoma manifests itself in younger age, white glaucoma and cataract are the fallouts of the old age,’’ he added. Dr Luthra says that cataract still remains the leading cause of treatable and preventable blindness in India and a large percentage of the 15 million cataract blind people world wide, reside in here. ‘‘Epidemiological studies suggest that direct exposure to sunlight and poor nutrition are the main causes for this. And while treatment of cataract by surgery is easily available in urban areas, in rural areas it is still remains a major problem. This despite the fact that for decades, hospitals and practioners have tried to address the problem using the help of government and the NGOs . But a lot more has to be done and organisations like Rotary and Lions Club should come forward to organise eye camps so that the surgical treatment option is made available to people in rural areas. Moreover, cataract backlog can be easily addressed by modifying the risk factors by improving nutrition, taking vitamin supplements and wearing protection to avoid direct sunlight exposure to the eyes,’’ he says. Trachoma, which is the second leading cause of blindness is easily preventable, says Dr Luthra. ‘‘Trachoma is caused by bacterial infection and is usually transmitted by the house flies. The infection affects surface layer of the eye causing scarring which in turn makes eyelids and eyelashes turn inward and rub on the cornea. The constant rubbing makes the cornea hazy and also reduce vision permanently.’’ He said that the condition could be arrested by taking an antibiotic in the early stage of infection and by maintaining good hygiene, regularly washing hands and avoiding exposure to flies. Glaucoma caused by high blood pressure can be detected and managed by measuring blood pressure regularly. ‘‘Especially those with a family history should be particularly careful,’’ he adds Vitamin A deficiency, another important cause of preventable blindness in India, squint, diabetes-related blindness, caused by infections and trauma, even macular degeneration can be addressed, asserts Dr Luthra. He further pointed out that squint was another cause of preventable blindness in children. This condition could be seen by an observant parent or picked by the paediatrician and can then be corrected by appropriate glasses or surgery. If the same was detected early, say by five to seven years, the loss of vision could be surfaced. Listing out some of the less common causes, Dr Luthra pointed out that preventable blindness can also be caused by diabetes, infections and trauma or injury. Preventing complication from diabetes involves first being diagnosed early and then getting appropriate treatment. Further people with diabetes need to be examined by an ophthalmologist at least once a year and if any changes are detected, they can be treated by laser or surgery. This was followed by a question and answer session and a panel discussion by a group of experts, including Dr Gupta of PGI, Dr Luthra, Dr Sujata Grover, Dr R Kumar, Dr D.P Vats and Dr S Sood, Professor and Head, Department of Ophthalmology, GMCH-32. Dr Amod Gupta highlighted that trauma or injury to the eye could occur through mechanical damages and even crackers. Such injuries seriously affected the eye and needed to be treated promptly. In fact, senior ophthalmologist, Mr R Kumar, said that society should take a vow that they would do away with bursting crackers of festivals. The symposium was attended by doctors and leaders of the community, including members of the Rotary and Inner Wheel clubs.
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Seven-day yoga camp inaugurated Chandigarh, July 21 Speaking at the inaugural day of a seven-day yoga training and treatment camp organised by the Chandigarh Yog Sabha at Yog Divya Mandir in Sector 30 here, he said health was very essential for all. He emphasised that yoga played a pivotal role in maintaining body and mind. He told the audience that yoga had its roots in the ancient past and it nourished and nurtured the seers and sages. He said modern medical science realised its importance in controlling psychomatic diseases. More and more people were adopting yoga for the treatment of various diseases. He said patients of hypertension, blood pressure, heart ailments, anxiety, common cold, backache, cervical spondylitis, knee pain, migraine, diabetes, asthama and bronchitis could be treated with simple yoga techniques and dietary measures. A two-day special workshop on yoga therapy would also be conducted on July 28 and 29 in which yoga exponent Prof M. Lal would explain the application of various yoga practices for the treatment of different diseases, said Mr M.L. Vairagi, secretary of the Chandigarh Yog Sabha. |
Kick off to a new
session Chandigarh, July 21 He said the boys, who were in the age group of 12 to 19, formed a strong team for many tournaments that would be held this year. He said boys had come from Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, besides Chandigarh and its nearby areas, to join the academy. Mr Ranjan Sethi, another official of the school, said the boys would play on the Phase VIII grounds at SAS Nagar and receive physical training on the school premises. He said, this year, the school would host the CBSE (Cluster XI) Regional Football Tournament, the dates of which would soon be announced. He said coach Ranjit Rana was working hard on these players. Two boys of the school, Kalarjit Singh and Harish, had been chosen for the Indian schools football team past year for the Asian meet in Bangkok. He also said one of the school players was attending a camp organised by the All-India Football Federation in New Delhi. He said the school would promote the other sport as well. A hall for indoor sport was being built in Sector 70 of SAS Nagar for the school. The names of the boys who have been selected for training at the academy are as follows: Kage Do Dom, Vikas, Sushil, Gurpreet, Shamsher, Davinder, Kuldeep, Sandeep, Pardeep, Ritesh, Ajay, Balbir, Charanvir, Dipankar, Parminder, Naresh, Bir Singh, Ravinder, Sunil, Manish, Chetan, Ram Bilas, Harish, Vinay, Harmohabat, Gurpreet, Harpreet, Jasvir, Rahul, Chander Bhan, Ramandeep, Amandeep, Saharanjit, Rahul, Jagjit, Gurdeep, Chamko, Bobucha, Gaurav and Sachin. |
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SPORTS ROUND-UP Chandigarh The other day, Mr Gurbir Sandhu, president of the Punjab Rifle Shooting Association said that shooting was one sport in which one’s skills were always on test. India could depend on this skill-oriented sport for winning medals in international events. Raja
K.S. Sidhu, Secretary-General of the PRSA, was of the view that the college in which the range will be built, had more than 2000 students and it would improve their achievements at the inter-college and university level. He said more than dozen sites in and around SAD Nagar were inspected for the range and finally the college land was approved. It is believed that the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, who is a great lover of this sport, had before leaving for the USA instructed the Chief Secretary to allot land for the range, conceived about three months ago. Now the herculean talks before the executing agency, Markfed, is to complete the range before September 18, 2001, the proposed date for the National Games to begin. City’s girl rower Gurpreet Kaur belongs to a middle class family with hardly any background of sports, but she has done her parents proud by her achievements in rowing, a sport which very few would like go for. Gurpreet, as a student of Class XII in Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 20, won the bronze medal in single scull event in the Junior Asian Rowing meet held here in December, 2000 in which all major Asian nations had participated. Recently, she was honoured by the Union Sports Ministry with a reward of Rs 30,000 in recognition of her achievements. Her mother, a teacher in GMSSS-20, said Gurpreet, a shy girl, had always wanted to sharpen her skills in sports and thank God, she has landed in the right kind of sport. Gurpreet has now joined the BA Ist year class in MCM DAV College for Women, and is currently attending a national camp, as she has been selected for the Junior World Cup Rowing Championships to be held in Germany later this month. Back from Malaysia Mr Ravinder Talwar, who recently went with the Indian schools badminton team to Seramban (Malaysia) for the Asian Schools Badminton meet as an observer of the School Games Federation of India, has suggested that had more training with senior players been provided to the school players, their performance would have been much better. Commenting on the excellent arrangements made by the organisers, he says that this calls for introspection. Mr Talwar, who is also vice-president of the
SGFI, said that though the Indians possessed all kinds of strokes, yet they were not able to clinch the tie because they lacked in temperament and confidence. He cited the example of one player, Sagar Chopra, who extended a Malaysian player in the first game in one of the pre-quarterfinal tie and though he was leading in the second game he began to lose points. |
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Probables chosen Chandigarh, July 21 |
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