Soon, mobile vans to screen liver diseases in rural delhi

People living in rural areas of the city will soon be able to get screened for liver diseases at their doorstep.

People living in rural areas of the city will soon be able to get screened for liver diseases at their doorstep.

HT Image

On the 3rd Foundation Day celebration of the Delhi government-run Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), chief minister Sheila Dikshit asked the hospital to launch mobile vans to screen and provide treatment related to liver diseases in rural pockets of the city.

"The knowledge and expertise of ILBS doctors should go out of the four walls and reach those who cannot make it to the hospital and avail of its state-of-the-art facilities," said Dikshit.

"Not many people know about the ailments related to their liver. There needs to be an awareness among people and they should get their liver checked regularly," she added.

The chief minister also expressed concern over the increasing number of cases of liver getting affected due to high intake of alcohol.

"Out of 1000 liver disease cases that were referred to us for transplant in this short span of time, 48% were found to be alcoholic," said Dr Shiv Kumar Sarin, director, ILBS.

Vice-president of India Hamid Ansari, who was the chief guest, said, "It is important to provide access to affordable and quality healthcare towards attainment of the larger goal of inclusive socio-economic development in the country."

He also released the hospital's annual report 2012. The liver cases which the hospital saw in 2012 had almost doubled since 2011. During the whole of last year, ILBS saw 40,000 liver disease cases, out of which 15,000 were new ones.