The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Leucoderma clinic opens

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 30, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Leucoderma clinic opens

Staff Reporter

Only a skin condition, not a disease: expert

TAMBARAM: The Leucoderma Awareness Movement has opened a clinic at Tambaram as part of its efforts to reach out to people with this "skin condition."

Conceived by a group of people affected with Leucoderma, the trust aims at creating awareness among the public that Leucoderma is only a condition of the skin and not a disease. It has been striving hard to persuade the State Government to make an official announcement in this regard.

Trust volunteers said they approached Ministers and officials in the Health Department, but met with a poor response. The Government was not focussing on the issue earnestly, as Leucoderma was not a disease.

With inadequate facilities in hospitals and medicines proving costly, quacks play havoc among the unsuspecting and the uneducated.

Private hospitals charge exorbitant sums for treatment of the condition. Further, the conventional methods of treatment cause side effects.

This led to a group and experts getting together to formulate a less expensive, yet effective herbal-based medicines, according to K. Umapathy, a founder member of the trust. He said the medical or physical problems of persons with Leucoderma were not as severe compared to the social stigma attached to it.

"While women are sensitive and tolerant and stay behind with their husbands who develop Leucoderma, many men abandon their wives."

People with Leucoderma face hurdles in their education, employment and marriage primarily due to the fact there is very little awareness about this. " It is not hereditary and certainly not contagious," he said.

In order to disseminate more information among the people in this region, the trust has opened a clinic at Tambaram. Apart from distributing herbal-based medicines at a low cost, it will also provide counselling. The clinic is located at: No. 4, GST Road, (Near Sivasakthi Kalyana Mandapam), Irumbuliyur. Phone Numbers are: 5538 1157 and 93810 57774.

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