The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : PHC medical officers to get training in detection of diabetic retinopathy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 22, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

PHC medical officers to get training in detection of diabetic retinopathy

Special Correspondent

Guidelines for universal screening for gestational diabetes in women issued

— Photo: M. Vedhan

INFORMATIVE MANUAL: Meer Mustafa Hussain ,Vice-Chancellor, The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University (second from right), releasing a book of guidelines, in Chennai on Sunday. The first copy was received by Sanjay Gupte, president-elect FOGSI. (From left) C.N.Purandare, FOGSI president, V. Seshiah, chairman, Dr. V. Seshiah Diabetes Research Institute and S. Elango, Director of Public Health, are in the picture.

CHENNAI: The Health Department will soon launch a training programme for medical officers supervising Primary Health Centres (PHCs) for early detection of diabetic retinopathy, the Director of Public Health (DPH), S. Elango, said on Sunday.

Releasing “The Guidelines on Diagnosis and Management of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus”, Dr. Elango said PHC medical officers would be oriented towards the basics of ophthalmology to equip them to screen for early signs of retinal complications.

The DPH said that the Government had already issued guidelines for universal screening for gestational diabetes in women in various trimesters of pregnancy. As part of this, PHCs had been bolstered with semi auto analysers and anti-diabetic drugs, he said.

The primacy of women and children’s health was virtually an “unwritten law” in the department’s mandate, he added.

Earlier, inaugurating a national “Training of Trainers Program” on gestational diabetes, Meer Mustafa Hussain, Vice-Chancellor, the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, called for spreading the guidelines across the country.

Dr. Hussain pointed out that from a neonatologist’s perspective, gestational diabetes screening should ideally be undertaken at an earlier stage than the standard of 24th week of pregnancy to prevent health risk to the foetus. The Dr. M.G.R. University would soon launch an M.D. in diabetology, Dr. Hussain said. The three-year programme had been conceived keeping in mind the needs of the nation, which was tipped to be diabetes capital of the world, he added.

C.N.Purandare, president of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), said a country which only had 1,358 gynaecologists in the State sector to look after the obstetric needs of the women population could not be expected to effectively lower maternal mortality rates.

The FOGSI, with over 24,000 members, was willing to extend support to the Government. The professional body was in the process of framing guidelines on the early management of various complications in pregnancy.

V. Seshiah, chairman, Dr. V. Seshiah Diabetes Research Institute, said women who developed gestational diabetes were as much at risk of developing diabetes in future as their offspring. V. Balaji, co-chairman, said the results of a community study by these institutions that showed a 17 per cent prevalence of gestational diabetes in Chennai and 10 per cent prevalence in Tiruvallur set up the platform for the Tamil Nadu Government launching universal screening for the condition in pregnant women.

Sanjay Gupte, FOGSI president-elect, said the professional body was shifting focus towards academic and research programmes. Sujata Misra, chairperson, FOGSI Committee on Medical Disorders in Pregnancy, said that the way forward after framing screening protocols for gestational diabetes was to create the evidence that is now lacking on prevalence of the disorder.

The guidelines on gestational diabetes were jointly formulated by FOGSI, the Dr. V. Seshiah Diabetes Research Institute and the Dr. Balaji Diabetes Care Centre.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu