The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

HEALTH

Late pregnancy may lead to abnormal babies
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, March 22
If one conceives after the age of 30, the incidence of having deformed newborn increases manifold.

Making these observations on the eve of the ‘International Downs Syndrome Day’, Dr Vineeta Munjal, gynecologist and obstetrician emphasised the importance of intensive screening and counseling of expectant mothers.

She said: “Ambitions and day to day pressures with late marriages and late age of conception, have their own risks. Out of all conceptions, at least 8 per cent have a chromosomal abnormality accounting for nearly 50 per cent of first trimester abortions and some 56 per cent of newborn deaths.”

Every normal individual, she stated, had a total of 44 autosomal chromosomes arranged in pairs numbered from 1 to 22 and one pair of sex chromosomes. When an affected individual inherits an extra chromosome, downs syndrome results. Average incidence of downs syndrome was about 1 in 1000, which increased from 1 in 725 at the age of 32, and further to 1 in 12 at the age of 49.

The downs syndrome in babies is associated with malformations affecting the heart, and the digestive system. Moreover, affected babies are also at increased risks of childhood leukemia and thyroid diseases.

The intelligence quotient (IQ) of the child is below normal with learning disabilities.

The child walks, talks, reads, and writes at an age later than children of the same age group, she added.

Elaborating, Dr Vineeta remarked that children with the downs syndrome have a protruded tongue, small head, flat nose, folds over the eyes, loose skin at back of the neck, underdeveloped thumbs, hearing impairment, running nose, chest and sinus infections, snoring and night wakening spells.

The females of the downs syndrome could bear children, but approximately a third of their offspring would have a downs syndrome. She concluded that downs syndrome occurr in all races and in all social classes throughout the world. Multiple marker screening tests were vital to identify more than 75 per cent potential downs syndrome pregnancies above the age of 35 and 60 per cent below the age of 35.

Local hospital, US NGO to provide free lip surgery|
Our Correspondent

Doraha, March 22
In order to make the highly specialised reconstructive surgery of face available to the poorest of the poor, Smile Train, a USA-based NGO, and the Sidhu Hospital, Doraha, have joined hands for providing surgery free of cost to the people suffering from cleft lip and palate.

Dr Gurdip Singh Sidhu, director and head of surgery, Sidhu Hospital, Doraha, said through this arrangement, a total of 500 children and adults suffering from congenital defects of face and mouth would be operated at the hospital in 2007. He further said Dr G.P. Singh, a world renowned plastic surgeon who has vast experience in this type of surgeries, would be the project director of this charity venture.

Explaining these congenital anomalies, Dr Sidhu said, “In the early weeks of fetal development, the right and left sides of the lip and the proof of the mouth normally grow together, meet and fuse in the centre. In about one of every 800 babies, they fail to meet, resulting in a gap in the middle of the lip or palate. A child born with a separation in the upper lip is said to have a cleft lip.

A similar birth defect in the roof of mouth is called a cleft palate. Since the lip and the palate develop separately, it is possible for a child to have a cleft lip, a cleft palate, or both. A cleft lip can range in severity from a slight notch in the red part of the upper lip to a complete separation of the lip extending into the nose. Cleft palate may involve only a tiny portion at the back of the roof of the mouth, or, it can be a complete separation that extends from front to back. Just as in cleft lip, cleft palate may appear on one or both sides of the upper mouth.

However, repairing a cleft palate involves more extensive surgery. Surgery is generally done when the child is about 3-year-old, but in a few cases because of severity of disease, surgery may be performed early”.

He said, “children born with these congenital deformities may need the skills of several medical professionals to correct the problems associated with the cleft. In addition to needing plastic surgery to repair the opening, these children may have problems with their feeding and their teeth, their hearing, their speech, and their psychological development as they grow up. For that reason, parents should seek the help of a cleft lip and palate team as early as possible”.