Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 10: With Cardiology Department of Government Medical College and Super Speciality Hospital (SSH) Jammu reaching out to almost very section of the society with a message of living heart healthy life, this time it was again Home for Lepers situated in Bhagwati Nagar area of Jammu city where the team scanned the patients putting up there.
The team which was led by Dr Sushil Kumar Sharma investigated the inmates about the prevalence of various types of cardiac ailments. The team reached out to the youngest of the leprosy affected patients and apprised them about the need to keep an eye on their heart health. In totality, the team examined more than 180 inmates, scanned them for cardiac diseases, gave them free medicines besides doing required epidemiological tests.
Dr. Sushil while interacting with the leprosy patients said that there are risk factors which contribute to the high prevalence of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) among leprosy patients. He said that the presence of ischemia of various tissues in leprosy patients due to vascular changes alongwith vascular lesions which are very frequent in some parts of the body is a worrying sign. “Though this is not significant but needs to be taken care of by specialists,” said Dr. Sushil.
He added that risk factors of stress and anxiety are of particular importance in these patients. “Adverse psychological states in the leprosy sufferers are caused mainly by uncertainty about the course of the illness, painful complications, the stigma of the disease, the fission in the family life, poor social acceptability, and, usually and financial difficulties,” said Dr. Sushil.
Dr. Sushil said that Cardiologists have to act as barrier breakers in the case of leprosy patients. “We need to take up the social responsibility of reaching out to these people in whatever way we can. Our investigations coupled with increased social interactions with these leprosy affected people could go a long way in removing the stigma of these friends of god being discarded by the society as “Untouchables”. In fact, it is their golden touch and the smile that brings life back in many faces,” said Dr. Sushil Sharma.
Led by Dr. Sushil, the team of doctors which was part of this humane effort included Dr. Mohi Kalsotra, Dr. Dhaneshwar Kapoor, Dr.Vijay Kumar and Dr. Anitipal Singh. Paramedics and Volunteers who were part of the team included Kashmiri Lal, Kamal Kishore, Sanjay Sharma, Gaurav Sharma, Vikas Kumar, Mahesh Khajuria and Kuldeep kumar Gupta (pharmacist).
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