The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Call for more research on vaccines against diabetes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 21, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Call for more research on vaccines against diabetes

Staff Reporter

Manual of guidelines on primary prevention released

— PHOTO: K. PICHUMANI

Moment of HONOUR: Dr. M.G.R. Medical University Vice-Chancellor K. Meer Mustafa Hussain presents the M. Viswanathan gold medal oration award 2007 to Gojka Roglic, Responsible Officer, WHO diabetes programme, Geneva, in Chennai on Sunday. Vijay Viswanathan, MD, M.V. Hospital, is in the picture.

CHENNAI: There needs to be more research on vaccines to prevent diabetes, said Dr. M.G.R. Medical University Vice-Chancellor K. Meer Mustafa Hussain here on Sunday. He was speaking at the launch of a manual of guidelines on primary prevention of diabetes and educational material, at a function organised by M.V. Hospital for Diabetes and Diabetes Research Centre, Royapuram.

The Vice-Chancellor, who was honoured with the lifetime achievement award, said the university had initiated research on vaccines but research was abandoned later for want of funds. Currently post-graduates students at the Institute of Child Health were working on the various aspects of obesity including diabetes.

Responsible Officer of WHO Diabetes Programme in Geneva, Gojka Roglic, who delivered the Prof. M. Viswanathan gold medal oration, said recent studies by researchers in India had revealed that diabetes was likely to be responsible for 15 per cent of all new tuberculosis cases in India. Only three to four per cent of it could be due to AIDS. Quoting intensive studies conducted across the world, she said, lifestyle intervention worked as well as or better than drugs. In several countries the studies included monitoring the test population for several years.

She called for education of policy-makers, regulations to discourage consumption of unhealthy food and changes in agricultural policy and pricing that could help increase availability of healthy food. She also suggested a change in medical school curriculum that was oriented towards curative medicine.

Deputy Director General (medical), Directorate General of Health Services P.H. Ananthanarayanan and Managing Director of M.V. Hospital for Diabetes, Vijay Viswanathan, Royapuram, spoke. Winners of the oratorical contest on primary prevention of diabetes held last week for medical students were presented prizes.

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