To mark the World Polio Day, a free polio camp and a public awareness lecture was organised by Sanjay Orthopaedic, Spine & Maternity Centre and SHEWA Society Dehradun at Jakhan in Dehradun on Wednesday. The programme was inaugurated by Hem Chandra Pandey, Vice- Chancellor, HNB Uttarakhand Medical Education University.
Dr B K S Sanjay, the Guinness and Limca Book record holder, said during the camp that Polio and CP in childhood are the main causes of disability in India. “Polio is a mother of not just physical disability but mental, social and economic disability. Particularly if the patient is a poor woman the polio disability becomes a monster,” he said.
He, further, said that happily enough, India has become polio free since March 27 2014. “That means there are no new cases of polio. But there are hundreds of thousands of old cases of polio which are causing a major social and economical problem to our nation,” he said and added that the main cause of disability in polio is due to muscular imbalance. “The unopposed powerful muscles pull the joint in one direction which cause the deformity.
There are only two types of operation either reducing the strength of powerful muscle or augment the power of weak muscles.
If in spite of muscles tendon transfer, joint does not become stable then joint has to be fused,” he said. He, further, said that the shortening of the limb is the rule in the polio rather than the exception. “The polio surgery is very rewarding. The simple surgery can change the gait of the polio patient and ultimately his life,” he said.