Rare diseases must be tackled on an immediate basis, say experts
To address the issue of rare diseases, leading experts converged in Dehradun on Tuesday at an event to highlight the need for urgent measures to be taken to counter the problem. Organised by National Health Mission (NHM), Government of Uttarakhand, and Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP), it witnessed the presence of Yugal Kishore Pant, the mission director, NHM, Dr Suman Arya, additional director, Medical Care, Health Services, Dr Archana Srivastav, head of Maternal and Child Health, Dr Pradeep Bharti, principal Doon Medical College, Dr D S Rawat, member of Medical Selection Board, Dr Amit Shukla, director Finance, National Health Mission, Dr Alok Semwal, IAP president, Uttarakhand besides some renowned specialists. Some patients afflicted with rare diseases in Uttarakhand were also present.
The organisers said that the event was primarily a platform to deliberate and discuss upon the developments which have taken place in Uttarakhand with respect to rare diseases specifically in light of public release of National Policy for Treatment of Rare Diseases by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
Notably, taking a positive step towards countering various issues of rare diseases, the Central Government last year came up with the National Policy for Treatment of Rare Diseases. Those who addressed the gathering stressed on the rare diseases being tackled immediately.