The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Neo-natal jaundice treatable
Tribune News Service

Mohali, January 14
Neo-natal jaundice is a treatable condition if detected early, but may cause severe brain damage leading to mental retardation. This was stated by Dr G.S. Cheema, a private practitioner in the township, here today.

Dr Cheema was addressing mediapersons relating the case of a child born on January 2 and suffering from acute jaundice. ‘‘By the time the child was brought to us he had a billurubin count of 56 while the normal is 1. The child was in a serious condition and had we not acted immediately permanent damage to the child’s brain could have occurred,’’ he said.

Explaining the cause of neo-natal jaundice, Dr Cheema said it was a common condition, ‘‘as the new-born child’s liver is not strong enough to bear the billurubin overload. Generally neo-natal jaundice occurs within a few days of birth and the easiest treatment is phototherapy. In most cases enough exposure to the sun treats the problem but in severe cases, when the billurubin level is higher, we expose the child to special lights inside the hospital. In worse cases, the child’s blood has to be changed. The case we treated was unique in the sense that his blood had to be changed four times in a short duration,’’ he added.

Asked if it was ethically right for doctors to gather publicity by parading patients as success stories, Dr Cheema said such cases were used to inform public and create awareness about a disease. ‘‘Even well educated parents are taken for a ride by quacks in many cases. In the majority of the cases neo-natal jaundice does not require any medication and gets cured naturally as the child grows. But many doctors insist that medicines be given to the child and when the child starts improving the parents feel that it is in response to the doctor’s medicine, 'he said.

Dr Cheema also said in case the identity of a patient was being revealed to public with the consent of the patient, there was nothing wrong in it.

PGI team inspects facilities at GMCH
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 14
An inspection team headed by the Director, PGI, Prof S.K. Sharma, visited the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) to see whether all facilities were being offered by the GMCH. This visit was part of the inspection to be carried out by Panjab University.

The university conducts examinations for the GMCH and the team checked the laboratories, teaching classes and strength of faculty. Besides Dr Sharma, the other member of the team was Dr Mehmood Akhtar of Panjab University. Sources said the team expressed satisfaction over the facilities.

Dental check-up camp for kids
Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, January 14
To educate the students about oral health, a dental check-up camp was organised at Col V.R. Mohan DAV Public School, Dera Bassi, in collaboration with the Sai Dharam Singh Grover Foundation yesterday.

Dr Maneel Grover and Dr Monica Grover examined the students and encouraged them to have a good dental care. The students were also given dental care aids, dental motivation cards and awareness booklets.

School Principal Jyoti Agnihotri said that the students were inspired to be extra careful towards their oral health.

SPORTS

Panjab University eves win silver medal in badminton
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, January 14
Women badminton team of Panjab University bagged silver medal, while the men team won the bronze medal in the All-India Inter- University Badminton Championship which concluded on January 12 at Nagpur. In this tournament the women team gave tough fight to the Nagarjuna University team which had two international players Sree Lakshmi and Somya on their side.

Earlier Panjab University team made it to the final by overpowering Calicut University 2-1.

The final results are:

Nagarjuna University beat Panjab University, Chandigarh, 2-0. B.Shree Lakshmi beat Isha 11-3, 11-6, T Somya and A.L.Ashwani Chaudhry beat Isha and H.Sarda 15-13, 15-10.

In the semi-finals Panjab University Badminton (women) team beat Calicut University by 2-1 and Nagarjuna University beat Pune University by 2-0 where as, in the men section Nagarjuna University won gold medal , Delhi University won silver medal and Panjab University got bronze medal .

The members of the Panjab University men team were Deepak Sidhu, Gurjeet Bajwa, Akash Sethi, Piyush, Sachin Garg, Pawan, and Pankaj; and that of women team were H.Sarda, Isha Sharma, Roma and Gauri Sharma. Dr S N Sharma was the manager of the team and Mr S. Mahajan was the coach.

Baseball championship from today
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, January 14
Baseball activity in the city is going to get a boost with the holding of the 15th edition of the Junior National Baseball championship for boys and girls beginning tomorrow at the Panjab University grounds. Giving this information, Mr P.C.Bhardwaj, secretary-general of the Amateur Baseball Federation of India, said the six-day meet was earlier scheduled to be held in Andhra Pradesh but due to some unavoidable reasons, it was to be shifted to Chandigarh.

Mr Bhardwaj said the mega event, 22 states had confirmed their participation and the matches would be played on league-cum-knockout basis. He said the last junior national meet was held in Goa and the hosts were the winners in boys section while Chandigarh had won silver medal. Delhi took bronze medal. In the girls section, again Goa were the winners, MP remained the runner-up and Delhi got third place.

While listing out other activities of baseball in the country, Mr Bhardwaj said, now baseball was getting much popular in the country. He said their association headed by Mr Pius Pandarwani was trying to give desired thrust to the sport. Baseball was now part of the annual calendar of the School Games Federation of India.

On the forthcoming national level events, Mr Bhardwaj said, the 19th Senior National Baseball Championship would be held in New Delhi in February and 15th National Sub-Junior Baseball Championship would be held in New Delhi in May.

Mr Jagdish Kumar, IPS and Chairman of the organising committee, said free boarding and lodging would be provided to the participants.

He said the formal inauguration of the meet would take place tomorrow at 3 pm though the matches would begin at 9 am.

Green Field win

Green Field outscored Gem Public school by 88 runs in the PCA Parle Cup inter-school under-17 cricket tournament played here today at the MCA grounds, Mohali. Earlier Green Field XI won the toss and elected to bat first.

Brief scores; Green Field: 233 runs for three in 40 overs (Rahul Mankotia 103 n.o, Arjit 58, Harvinder Singh 39 n.o).

Gem Public School: 145 runs all out in 27 overs (Satinder Singh 47, Harmanbir Singh 20, Inderjit Singh 16, Satyajeet Singh 3 for 28, Sharvan Kumar 2 for 28).

Women team

Twelve girls in basketball while seven in gymnastics formed part of the UT team that will take part in the XXIXth National Sports Festival for Women (group I) to be held at Visakhapatnam from January 28 to 31. The coaching camp for the team will begin from January 16 at the Sports Complex, Sector 7.

The team is : basketball: Amandeep, Manjula, Mohinderjit, Gurjit, Shallu, Sapna, Sharanjit, Babita, Kamaldeep, Ranjita Rana, Raman and Jaswinder. Coach is Manjit Singh. Gymnastics:Yogita, Pinky, Harjit, Asha, Savitari, Nisha and Sukhwinder. Coach is Neelam Sharma.