Children get stroke; although curable, lack of awareness endangers their lives: Experts

Bengaluru, June 29 

The lack of awareness when it comes to paediatric stroke is so low and people are often stunned to hear that children can get stroke. Actors like Amitabh Bachchan need to talk about it to create awareness, said Dr Nirmal Surya, president of Indian Stroke Association (ISA) on Saturday.

Speaking at a press conference after the inauguration of the second national paediatric stroke conclave, he said, “Stroke is preventable, but globally paediatric stroke is the sixth leading cause of death in children.”

According to Dr Surya, lack of awareness is the biggest challenge that paediatric neurologists world over have to overcome.

“In India, the situation is even worse. When people are not made aware of the possibility of stroke in children, time is lost on misdiagnosis. Time is of essence because stroke can often be treated with injection if the patient is brought within four and half hours,” he added.

Stroke can occur even on the day one of the birth, reiterated Dr Minal V Kekatpure, paediatric neurologist at Narayana Health in Bengaluru.

According to her, in fact, paediatric stroke is more common among neonates than older children.

“In one lakh, there are about 25 neonate cases as against 12 involving older children,” added Kekatpure.

Dr Pratibha Singhi, president of International Child Neurology Association, said often parents do not realise that the child is suffering from a stroke.

“We have had instances where parents brought their child seeking remedy for ‘not very good at writing’ and on checking we found that the child actually had suffered a stroke and is unable to move the hand properly,” added Singhi.

Dr Arvind Sharma, secretary of ISA, said there are about accredited 13 primary centres in India that are equipped to deal with stroke and about 30 stroke ready but not accredited facilities.

“We need about 1,000 accredited hospitals at least to deal with this disorder in India,” added Sharma.

“In a year, we should be doing 2.5 lakh thrombosis, but we do only 2,000 to 3,000. That is a huge gap to fill,” added Dr Sharma.