Central University of Punjab and AIIMS Bathinda initiated joint community outreach programme series to spread awareness about Vitamin D deficiency
Bathinda : The Central University of Punjab, Bathinda (CUPB), in collaboration with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bathinda (AIIMS Bathinda), launched a joint community outreach programme series to raise awareness about Vitamin D deficiency and improve public health.
As a part of this programme, a health check up camp was organized last week at the Government Dispensary, Naruana Village near Bathinda City. In this camp, medical experts from AIIMS Bathinda gave medical consultation and scientists from CUPB were involved in awareness programmes and health screening. More than 100 patients attended this camp and received free medical consultations and health check-ups.
In the next few days, many such camps will be organized in rural areas near Bathinda during which the organizing team will visit surrounding villages near Bathinda to screen people for vitamin D deficiency and spread awareness for better public health.
This programme is a part of MoU signed earlier by CUPB Vice Chancellor Prof. R.P. Tiwari and Director AIIMS Bathinda Dr. D.K. Singh to foster cooperation in academics, research and public health. The research team led by Dr Sabyasachi Senapati, Department of Human Genetics & Molecular Medicine, CUPB, and the medical team led by Prof. Rakesh Kakkar and Dr Madhur Verma, took the initiative to implement this programme to reach the local community for improved health. Dr Venus Jain Medical Officer at Government Dispensary, Naruana Village assisted to organize the program.
While sharing the details of the programme, Dr Sabyasachi Senapati, human geneticist from CUPB, stated that vitamin D deficiency is a major health concern worldwide as it causes malnutrition and several other lifestyle diseases. Detection and treatment of Vitamin D malnutrition at an early stage will improve the overall public health and reduce the disease burden. A pilot study from Dr. Senapati’s laboratory observed Vitamin D deficiency in 77% of individuals in otherwise healthy population. He emphasized that this outreach programme would help understand the requirements of the Indian population in the context of a specific scale for vitamin D deficiency that can be correlated with symptoms.