The speakers in The Pioneer lecture on Tropical diseases at Raj Bhawan auditorium on Monday blamed media for creating unnecessary scare in the society about some of the diseases.
Most of the prominent panelists like Brig (Retd) Dr Rajesh Kakkar of Max Super specialty hospital and President of Uttarakhand chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA) Dr Kuldeep Datta in their lectures castigated the media for adopting wrong stand on diseases like Ebola and swine flu and creating a scare among the people.
Delivering his lecture on swine flu, the President of Uttarakhand chapter of IMA Dr Datta said that the genetic material of the virus responsible for the disease keeps on changing due to which the vaccine needs to be updated regularly.
He said that children are more susceptible for the H1N1 virus. Dr Datta said that proper preventive measures are important to combat the menace of the disease.
Highlighting procedural delays in the reporting the cases of Swine Flu he said that since the sample needs to be sent to designated labs for confirmatory tests located in New Delhi or Mumbai, a time of more than 7 days is consumed in the process which is very crucial for the patient.
Brig Kakkar delivered a lecture on Ebola disease in which he said that the media hype has created a situation of panic in the society. He said that the infected person initially is not capable of spreading the infection.
Dr Kakkar informed that out of four viral strains the Zaire Ebola virus has the highest mortality rate with 70 percent death rate but the disease can be cured if treatment is started in an early stage.
Elaborating the present outbreak of the disease in the West African countries he said that the disease spread when a two-year-old boy in Guinea died due to disease and later his mother, grand mother and sister died and the epidemic spread when the people got infected as they attended their funeral procession.
He informed that at present there is no symptomatic diagnosis of Ebola as the symptoms like headache, rashes and high fever are not sufficient and lab tests too are non specific and the doctors diagnose the disease with the epidemiological settings.
The Associate Professor at Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust (HIHT), Dr Shoaib Ahmed said that though the state of Uttarakhand do not lie in the Tropical region most of these disease have started infecting the people of the state in big way.
He said that recently for the first time 50 cases of Kala Azar were discovered in Uttarakhand which is a signature tropical disease. The HIHT professor of Medicine disclosed that Plasmodium Vivax which is less lethal in the tropical climates is the causative agent of the most of the Malaria deaths in Uttarakhand.
He said that the scrub typhus is also infecting the people of the State in major way and cautioned that the dreaded Japanese encephalitis has also made its entry in Uttarakhand. Dr Ahmed said that by spreading awareness and proper management the effect of these diseases can be minimized.
The District Nodal Officer for Dengue Dr SS Kandari spoke in length about the dengue and the preventive measures to be adopted.
He said that the female Aedes Azeypti can lay its eggs in as small as 5 ml of water and it bites during the daytime. Dr Ashok Kumar Rai from Varanasi gave a brief description about the tropical climate and most common diseases of this region. Dr Shailja Rawat Assistant Professor Government Degree College Narendra Nagar, Tehri delivered her lecture on Ebola and informed that this disease is also called caretaker’s disease as it invariably infects those treating them.
Eminent Gastroenterologist Dr Sanjay Saxena delivered his lecture on water borne diseases. He said that safe potable drinking water and proper sewage disposal would drastically reduce such diseases.
Noted neurophysician Dr Sashendra Saxena said that brain is the worst affected part of the body by most of the tropical diseases. He underlined the need of maintaining a proper personal hygiene and avoiding raw vegetables to avoid infections. Dr Mayank Srivastav of Himalayan Ayurvedic medical college in his lecture elaborated upon the use of Ayurveda in dealing with most of the tropical diseases. Eminent Nephrologist Dr Vikram Singh dwelled upon the kidney diseases in the tropical climate.
At the end of the event the speakers were felicitated by Rajpur MlA Rajkumar, Vice Chancellor of Gurukul Kangri University Prof. Surendra Kumar, IMA President of Uttarakhand chapter Dr Kuldeep Datta and Deputy General Manager (DGM) Canara Bank Jagjit Singh.