A news article in today’s leading newspaper of the county brings some good news for CURE and their clubfoot program. It reads, “Babies to be screened across nation to battle birth defects”. It says, the government has taken the initiative of asking 50 hospitals across the country to detail the health and condition of every child born for a first program that will help gauge the prevalence of birth defects ad aid timely interventions. A survey was done a year ago on 18.7 crore children from hospitals, angangwadi centres and schools which shows that 3.46 lakh had birth defects that could have potentially been corrected. Birth defects can manifest in physical deformities and serious medical conditions that can impact life expectancy. Lack of attention at birth, especially for children from economically weaker section, means they go on to live with ailments that could have been corrected at the early stage. The selected hospitals are responsible to catalogue the type of defects, medical history of the mothers and it will be sent to the health ministry on a monthly basis. The data will be reviewed annually.
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), PGI Chandigarh and CMC Vellore are among the 50 hospitals selected, including district government facilities.
According to records, of the 2.6 crore births every year, 2 crore are in government hospitals. CURE’s Perspective It is indeed a great news for CURE India which runs hundreds of clubfoot clinics across India and in the government run hospitals. If this initiative taken by the government is implemented effectively and efficiently then for sure CURE Clubfoot Program would benefit the most out of it. As the children will be detected about the deformity right after the birth, in partnership with those 50 hospitals, CURE can easily enrol those children with clubfoot disability for the treatment. As CURE is stepping towards a milestone of marking its presence in all the 29 states of India which is just two states away, this initiative by the government is paving way for CURE Clubfoot Program to make this phrase correct, “India free from the disability of Clubfoot”.
