Focus on health on International Women's Day

CHENNAI: Anaemia, pregnancy risks, menopausal health and heart disease at functions across the city, held ahead of International Day for Women,
doctors focused on investing in women's health as prescribed by World Health Organization.

At a function organised by Merck, Dr Jaishree Gajaraj, consultant obstetrician gynaecologist, Apollo Speciality Hospitals, said iron deficiency in women was a cause for concern. A recent survey by National Family Health Survey 3 showed that more than 50% women in Tamil Nadu suffer from iron deficiency. "More than half of adolescent girls are anaemic," she said.

Senior cardiologist Dr G Sengottuvelu said cardiovascular disease is the leading killer in women. "Women with diabetes are two to three times more likely to have heart attacks. High blood pressure is also common among women taking oral contraceptives," he said.

World Vision organised a seminar to stress that men should assume equal responsibility in providing HIV/AIDS care. "When a couple is infected, the woman is doubly disadvantaged as she has to provide care though she is sick," said Karoline Davis of World Vision.

At the police hospital, director general of police KP Jain inaugurated a dental, hepatitis B and C screening and counseling camp for women staff. The dental camp will open to women prisoners of Puzhal. The 990 women prisoners across the state will get a special lunch that includes fried rice and a sweet on Sunday.

Family violence worsens older women's health

WASHINGTON: Older women exposed to high levels of family violence during lifetimes are likely to have poor health, according to a new study. In the study involving African American women aged 50 years or older, the researchers found that exposure to family violence, be it intimate partner violence or elder maltreatment, worsens their physical and mental health.

The authors suggest that a holistic approach to caring for older women should include greater awareness by clinicians of current and past violence exposure and the negative effects it may have on the health status of these women. For the study, the research team from Temple University School of Medicine and Emory University School of Medicine used a survey to assess lifetime family violence levels, including physical violence, emotional, financial, and sexual abuse, neglect, and coercion.

"This study provides further evidence of the enduring harmful effects that family violence can have on both mental and physical health, and in particular it highlights the association between such exposure and the health of older African American women," said Dr Susan G Kornstein, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, and Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA.

The research team included Dr Anuradha Paranjape, MPH, Nancy Sprauve-Holmes, MPH, John Gaughan, PhD, and Nadine Kaslow, PhD, from Temple University School of Medicine (Philadelphia, PA) and Emory University School of Medicine (Atlanta, GA).

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Women Health: Pregnancy: a woman’s burden?

By Fawad Ali Shah

KARACHI: Lying unconscious in bed, Zuhra, 17, is unaware of her surroundings at Civil Hospital Karachi’s Intensive Care Unit.

The heart rate monitor beeps as the crests and troughs on the screen show her heart rhythm. Not even out of her teens, the young girl has given birth to a baby girl. “Doctors have told us that she is weak after delivering and it will take her a while to recover,” her sister-in-law, Zareena tells Daily Times as she squats on the floor beside Zuhra’s bed. However, duty nurses regard the condition of both, the mother and the newborn, as critical.

Zuhra is one of the thousands of women

who have never seen the inside of a health care centre or hospital. Their health suffers even more when they end up pregnant while unable to afford the basic healthcare costs during the crucial pregnancy period. Relying on traditional and home remedies, many a times these women end up in a worse physical and mental condition and this fate is passed on to their young children.

A woman is considered to play an important role in the development of her children but somehow things are different in reality as health issues mar their physical development.

Scholars claim that the mental growth, creativity and physical fitness of children are dependent on the behavior and physical health of mothers but no one cares about the health of a mother. In rural areas of Sindh, even bringing an infant female to a doctor for treatment is considered a taboo.

It is often said that there is a need to educate men about the importance of the health of female members, be it their mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, in order to ensure the happiness of their families.

Early child development is largely dependent on the physical health of a mother. An infant’s mental development, which at the end decides physical development, is decided by how well they are fed, what kind of environment they are given and on sensory stimulations.

Doctor Zulfiqar Bhutta at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) is an expert in women and child health. He says that 70 percent of pregnant women in Sindh suffer from iron deficiency called anemia. “The ratio is pretty dangerous and if a mother herself is not physically fit, how will her child be?” questions Bhutta.

He says that during pregnancy, which is an important phase in the development of a child, only one out of five women gets proper medical treatment while adding that nothing is being done to redress the issue.

“Research in interior Sindh has shown that parents bring boys to health care centres while denying the same opportunity to their daughters. Right from the beginning, girls end up suffering from health problems and in response they then mistreat their own children,” he adds.

AKUH Rector Dr Camer Vellani says, “Medical research has proved that the human brain develops very early, even before birth and the first three years of life, when development is dependant on nutrition, sensory stimulation, health and the social environment, are considered a crucial growth period, in which it is the mother who takes care of the child.” Vellani went on to say on to say that if we want a healthy nation we will have to educate and provide health facilities to women in our society so in turn they give birth to healthy citizens. “Child nurture needs considerations well before conception, through pregnancy and childhood to enable development of the brain and ensure the child reaches full genetic potential,” Vellani goes on to say.

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day, Zuhra is running out of energy. While the doctors give her a blood transfusion, her newborn daughter cries at full pitch because of hunger, oblivious to her mother’s agony. For now it seems, their fates are entwined as they stand in limbo.

souece: www.dailytimes.com.pk