“AS compared to 90 per cent of children in China who go through New Born Screening, the number is just 2 per cent in India,” said Dr. Seema Kapoor of Division of Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, LNJP hospital at a Panel Discussion held at AIIMS on Inborn Errors of metabolism (IEM).
The meeting was inaugurated by Niti Aayog member Professor V. K. Paul as chief guest and Prof, I.C. Verma (adviser, Institute of Genetics & Genomics, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital ) was the guest of honour.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof Paul urged doctors and social organizations to present a paper on IEM so that the government can include it in its health agenda. “The health budget is being increased from current 1.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent of GDP in the coming year; there’s a lot of scope to reduce the burden on parents of IEM children,” he said.
Dr. Verma, also known as Father of Genetics in India, emphasized on the need of duty-free import of special diets for the IEM children. “As these diets are required for the entire life and are pretty expensive, these are not within the reach of common man. Government should consider subsidizing these special diets,” he said.