 Early Times Report
JAMMU, Mar 8: Commemorating International Women's Day with special emphasis on gender equality in health in line with this year's theme 'Each for Equal', Dr. Sushil Sharma conducted a day long health awareness cum check up at Village Kattal Brahmana area of Hiranagar, Kathua. More than 500 people were screened, evaluated, diagnosed for various health ailments and free medicines were given as per the requirements.
He stated that governments have taken numerous steps towards improving women's health in line with commitments made in key international summits. However, societies are still failing women in relation to health, especially in low resource settings. Discrimination on the basis of their sex leads to health disadvantages for women, and often restricts women's access to health services. Traditionally, women have provided most of the care in the family, looking after both children and older people, often to the detriment of their own participation in the paid workforce. Several serious medical conditions of older age, including dementia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, breast and cervical cancers, cardiovascular diseases, maternal mortality are more common in women, yet women find it harder to access the treatment they need, he added.
He further maintained that the public understanding of heart diseases in women is limited. Self perception of risk is vastly underestimated translating to a greater delay from onset of symptoms to presentation and lower likelihood to consent to invasive procedures. As the incidence and impact of cardiovascular diseases in women continuous to rise, it is increasingly apparent that further female orientated research is required to better understand the unique etiology of chest pain in women and the optimal methods of reducing the burden of disease in our population.
He advised that the appropriate counselling and improving the practicality of management strategies are paramount to assisting women in controlling risk factors. The first line of treatment of CHD is aggressive risk factor reduction through life style modification including dietary changes, exercise and elimination of risk factors such as smoking and stress besides mitigating structural barriers restricting women's access to health services.
Residents of the area Sudesh Kumar (Sarpanch),Abhinandan Sharma, Rajinder Kumar, Shubhan Sharma, Narsingh Das, Sanjay Kumar, Rampal Sharma and Parshotam Singh appreciated the efforts of Dr Sushil and his team for conducting health check up camp in such far flung area especially on this occasion.
Others who were part of this humane effort included Dr. Shahbaz Khan and Dr. Dhaneshwar Kapoor. Paramedics and Volunteers who were part of the team included Kamal Sharma, Raghav Rajput, Mohd Altaf, Rajesh Suri, Sushil Singh, Rajinder Singh, Anmol Singh, Sandeep Kohli, Aman Gupta, Gourav Sharma, Vikas Kumar, Bhawani Singh, lovely Kumar and Rajkumar. |
