Healthcare experts call for embracing children with Down Syndrome

Team L&M

Healthcare experts have called for embracing children with Downs Syndrome, help create suitable jobs and enable them to lead a dignified life as such a move will result in an inclusive society. The experts were speaking at an awareness session for parents and caregivers of children with special needs organised by Neuberg Diagnostics, a chain of pathlabs.

Primary care physicians discussed about Down Syndrome, its complications, the need of regular systematic checkups, early medical intervention, and the role of healthcare providers. They highlighted the challenges related to the inclusiveness of these special children and shared how awareness and collective efforts can empower these children to join the mainstream workforce.

Dr Shubha Phadke, MD (Pediatrics) & Professor and head of the department Medical Genetics, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, informed that approximately 21,400 children with Down Syndrome; 9,000 with beta-thalassemia, and 5,200 with sickle cell disease are born every year in India. “If the disability is diagnosed at birth, then medical experts often look for medical complications like intellectual disability, heart malformations, trachea-oesophageal fistula, hyperthyroidism, cataracts, atlantoaxial dislocation, and risk of leukemia. And accordingly, counsel parents on therapies and treatments,” she said adding that these newborns need to undergo the regular physical examinations, eye examinations, hearing evaluations, and dental examinations. “But unproven therapies which are rampantly being provided to these children and should not be promoted,” she cautioned.

Dr Jayashree Gopal, Director, DiabEndoIndia, Chennai stated that 3 in 4 Down Syndrome individuals report thyroid-related issues at adulthood, the most common being hyperthyroidism. “This is the reason after they turn 20-21, they should be regularly screened for health issues like thyroid, sugar, blood pressure, and metabolic diseases,” said Dr Gopal adding that besides being prone to early menopause, they are also prone to obesity and diabetes in later years.

“While biochemical screening and testing of free fetal DNA in mother’s blood (NIPT) followed by invasive tests can help in the prenatal detection for genetic disorders, it is totally a personal decision of the parents to whether or not go ahead with the child birth,” stated Dr Sheetal Sharda, Director, Neuberg Centre for Genomic Medicine,