Expand paralysis treatment facilities

Experts say at roundtable

14 July 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

All the government and private medical college hospitals across the country should open treatment and rehabilitation units for the paralysed patients, medical experts opined at a roundtable yesterday. Treatment facilities for the paralysed patients are insufficient compared to the number of patients across the country, they said. The total number of paralysed patients in the country is between 15 and 20 lakh at present with another 15 to 20 thousand is adding up to the number every year, said Professor Abdul Awal Rizvi, also the director of National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics Rehabilitation (NITOR), commonly known as Pongu hospital. There are some 140 to 150 beds at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and NITOR, Professor Rizvi said. “So we need to open units at all the medical college hospitals across the country to ensure treatment facilities for the paralysed patients,” he said while speaking at the roundtable titled “Paralysis and Rehabilitation: Our Duties” organised by the Bangla daily Prothom Alo at its conference room. The two main causes of paralysis are stroke and spinal cord injury, speakers said, adding that one can sustain spinal cord injury from road accidents or falling from a high position. Valerie Taylor, who is the chief executive officer of the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP), stressed on the need for setting up treatment and rehabilitation unit of a multi disciplinary team comprising neurosurgeon, physiotherapist, occupational therapist and language therapists at the government medical college hospitals. She suggested people to control their diabetes problems and high blood pressure to prevent stroke. Dr Shahidur Rahman, associate professor of physical medicine department of BSMMU, said the government can also ask the private medical colleges to set up treatment and rehabilitation units for the paralysed patients. AKM Anwar Ullah Chowdhury, professor of neuromedicine department of BSMMU and Sohrab Hossain, chief of physiotherapy department of CRP, among others, spoke on the occasion.