To mark the 31st anniversary of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, members of the Sambhavna Trust Clinic highlighted the urgent need for identification and treatment of children with congenital malformations born to parents exposed to Union Carbide's poisons.
They said that the preliminary findings of a large scale study by the clinic indicate that compared to unexposed parents, far too many children are being born with congenital malformations to parents with acute exposure to toxic gas or chronic exposure to contaminated water.
The Sambhavna Clinic that provides free medical care to the survivors of the gas disaster and those exposed to contaminated groundwater, has recently completed a study involving over one hundred thousand persons from about 20 thousand families.
The study population includes almost equal numbers of individuals with four different kinds of exposure history - exposed to gas in 1984, exposed to contaminated water, exposed to both gas and subsequently water and unexposed.
For last three years the Clinic's researchers have collected information on diagnosed cases of TB, Cancers, Paralysis, reproductive health of women, physical growth, mental and social development of infants and children and birth defects.
Sambhavna's research workers have identified over 2500 children with possible birth defects in the study population.
Out of these over 1700 were diagnosed with congenital anomaly by 30 doctors from different parts of the country.
According to Ritesh Pal, Field Coordinator for the study, while the analysis of the data is ongoing, preliminary findings suggest that compared to an unexposed population, the incidence of congenital anomalies was much higher in the populations exposed to toxic gas and contaminated ground water.
He said that the study is expected to be published in international peer reviewed journals within the next six months.
Pal’s colleague Afreen said that they have not stopped at just identifying the children with birth defects but are in fact helping the children get corrective treatment.
According to her, so far 164 children with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, undescended testes, polydactyly, syndactyly, torticollis and other congenital anomalies have been referred to government and non-government health care centres for medical and surgical treatment. 43 of these children have completed their treatments.
Shanti Bai of Dwarka Nagar spoke on the successful treatment at Bhopal Memorial Hospital of her 12 year old son Abhishek for congenital heart disease diagnosed by Sambhavna’s doctors.
Over 31,000 survivors of the disaster and residents from the neighbourhood of the factory exposed to contaminated ground water are registered for treatment at the Sambhavna Trust Clinic. The Clinic’s unique feature is the integration of three different systems of treatment: modern medicine, Ayurveda and Yoga.