Christian Medical Hospital sets up heart valve bank
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 8
Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), a 110-year old organisation, has added another feather in its cap with the opening of the new heart valve bank. The CMCH has set up a heart valve bank which would provide underprivileged heart valve patients with prosthetic heart valve, free of cost. The free valve would be provided to the poor patients operated at CMCH. The hospital also aims at providing all possible assistance to patients requiring bypass surgery.

Dr John Abraham, Medical Superintendent of the CMCH, giving more details about the heart valve ailments, informed that the human heart had four chambers which were aided by as many heart valves. The valves ensured the blood flow in only one direction for systemic functioning of the heart but the valves did not always work as they should. “A person can be born with an abnormal heart valve, a type of congenital heart defect. Or else, a valve can become damaged by infections such as infective endorcarditis, rheumatic fever or changes in valve structure in elderly persons.”

He further said that the heart valves could malfunction either by leaking (causing regurgitation) or by not opening adequately and thus partially blocking the flow of blood through the valve (causing stenosis). Either problem could interfere with the heart’s ability to pump blood, creating complications for the patient. People with heart valve defects required treatment, involving surgical replacement of the defective valve.

“It is a known fact that Indians are at the highest risk of heart diseases. The susceptibility of Indians to heart disease can be traced to lifestyle issues, diet, rapid urbanisation and genetic causes. In India, in the past five decades, rate of coronary disease among urban population has risen from 4 per cent to 11 per cent, which is just the first wave of a swelling population of Indians with heart problems. And if the current trends continue, the World Health Organization, estimates that 60 per cent of the world’s cardiac patients will be Indians by 2010.”

According to Dr Abraham, an equally troubling fact was that not just elderly but also younger people were being afflicted with cardiovascular (CVD) disease. In India, nearly 50 per cent of CVD related deaths occurred below the age of 70, compared with just 22 per cent in the West

Ayurvedic doctors hail govt decision
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 8
The International Council of Ayurveda (ICA) has welcomed the decision of the Punjab Government for permitting ayurvedic practitioners to practice gynaecology and obstetrics as well as diagnostic ultrasonography.

In a joint statement here today, Dr B.K. Dutt and Dr Ashok Sharma, chairman and secretary general, respectively, of the ICA, thanked Capt Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister, and Mr Ramesh Dogra, Health Minister, for their positive approach to solve day-to-day problems of ayurvedic practitioners. “The state government has rightly implemented the decision of the Supreme Court and subsequent direction of the Government of India while issuing its notification on June 18 in this respect.”

They further remarked that the notification had clarified that institutionally qualified practitioners of the Indian System of Medicine (ayurvedic, sidha and unani) were eligible to practice the Indian System of Medicine as well as modern medicine, including surgery, gynaecology and obstetrics, based on their training and teaching.

The notification, they added, had further clarified that the meaning of the modern medicine (advances) meant advances made in various branches of modern scientific medicine, clinical, non-clinical, biosciences and also technological innovations made from time to time. Through the notification the government had admitted that the course and curriculum, recognised by the Central Council of Indian Medicine, were supplemented with such modern advances.