The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Chennai becoming diabetes care training hub

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 08, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Chennai becoming diabetes care training hub

Staff Reporter

"Priority is to train government doctors, rural practitioners" Priority is to train government doctors, rural practitioners: MV Hospital Director

CHENNAI : Chennai is becoming a hub for training physicians and paramedics from India as well as a host of Afro-Asian countries in diabetes care.

World Health Organisation's collaborating centre for diabetes research and training in Chennai — the MV Hospital for Diabetes and Diabetes Research Centre — has imparted lessons in fundamental diabetology to batches of doctors from Cameroon, Tanzania, Myanmar, North Korea, Bangladesh and Burma. The first physician from Pakistan is now undergoing training at the hospital.

And, as part of fulfilling a 2004 mandate of WHO and World Diabetes Foundation, the hospital is involved in training groups of general practitioners from seven Indian States, including Tamil Nadu.

To date, it has trained 2,510 government and private sector doctors against the target of training 3,000 doctors by March 2007.

"The priority is in providing diabetes training to government doctors and rural practitioners," A. Ramachandran, Director, MV Hospital told a press conference on Friday.

35 million patients

The training programme is a small step towards diffusing diabetes care in a country that tops in diabetes prevalence with a burden of 35 million patients.

On a broader plane, consultation is on with the Union Government for extending diabetes training to all States as well as conceptualising a National Diabetes Control Programme, Dr. Ramachandran said.

Tariq Parvez from Sialkot, Pakistan, finds the training programme innovative and relevant to the diabetes situation in his country, which is fifth ranked in global prevalence. According to N. Murugesan, project director, World Diabetes Foundation, the training would focus more on paramedics.

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