BHOPAL: Shalini Yadav, a teenage girl from Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district, who is afflicted with a rarest-of-rare congenital skin disorder, has finally found a ray of hope from the Spainis city of Malaga.
Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria in Malaga has decided to treat with the 17-year-old girl for lamellar icthyosis she has been afflicted since birth.
Shalini along with her farmer father Rajbahadur Yadav and Chennai-based journalist Sanjay Pandey flew from Mumbai to Spain Saturday to be at the hospital in Spain, where she would be administered treatment for a period ranging from a week to a month.
According to Indore-based journalist Mahesh Mishra, who along with Chennai-based colleague Sanjay Pandey, played a crucial role in the girl finally getting a call from Spain for free of cost treatment at the Malaga hospital, “Shalini is likely to return home in a month following the treatment, which promises to ensure that she can lead a normal life free of dependence on others.”
The Spanish hospital contacted the two Indian journalists in March-April, after the story of Shalini living a painful life for want of adequate treatment appeared in a prominent Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
Chhatarpur district collector Ramesh Bhandari confirmed on Sunday that Shalini has left for Spain on Saturday evening for treatment of the rare skin genetic disorder, which is reported in one out of two lakh population. “We ensured that her passport and Aadhar cards are made promptly to enable her and father to travel in time to Spain. We hope she will return home soon with a promise to lead normal and quality life in future,” said Bhandari.
Shalini is the lone daughter of small farmer Rajbahadur Yadav, while her mother Dev Kunwar is an anganwadi worker in Chhatarpur district (375 km from Bhopal). “My daughter is afflicted with the skin problem right since birth and all efforts to cure the problem at Chhatarpur district hospital, besides hospitals in Gwalior and Jhansi in UP have not delivered any positive results. We hope the all free treatment offered by Spanish hospital works wonders in her life,” said her father Rajbahadur Yadav, before flying to Spain with Shalini.
The congenital deformity of the skin is such that it has forced the teenager to stay indoors. Owing to the disorder, Shalini is virtually dependent on parents and younger brother for even her daily routine.
The disorder has seen her even drop out of school a few years back.
Lamellar ichthyosis is a rare genetic skin disorder, in which skin cells are produced at a normal rate but don’t separate normally at the surface of the outermost layer of skin (stratum corneum) and are not shed as quickly as they should be. The result of this retention is the formation of scales, giving the patient a shellacked appearance.
The disorder existing right from birth, though not curable totally, is treated at specialized centers with skin barrier repair formulae containing ceramides or cholesterol, moisturizers with petrolatum or lanolin and mild keratolytics.