With a sudden rise in the number congenital hypothyroidism (CH) cases among infants, the lack of testing centres for the same is making matters worse.
Not only that. Most government and private hospitals in the City do not even carry out CH tests. Ongoing studies and tests by City doctors on infants and newborns has revealed that one out of every 1,100th child is diagnosed with congenital hypothyroidism.
“In the wake of rise in number of cases and lack of testing centres, we urge the government to make CH testing mandatory in all government and private hospitals within a week of birth and start treatment early,” said Dr KM Prasanna Kumar, senior consultant, endocrinology and diabetology. He was speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
Adding to this, Dr P Raghupathy, senior paediatric endocrinologist, Sagar Hospital, said: “Though routine medical and blood tests are conducted on pregnant women and newborn babies, CH test is not conducted in most hospitals. This is important because CH children suffer from mental and physical disorders. The cure is simple- just one tablet a day.” The treatment costs not more than Rs 30 a month and the test costs Rs 60, he added.
Baptist and Sagar Hospitals screened 9,000 patients for three years and found six positive cases. In case of ongoing studies in Vellore and Hyderabad, there is one in every 1,200. In foreign countries the statistics suggest that it is one in every 4,000.