National Birth Defect Awareness Month 2024 was officially launched on Friday by NITI Aayog Member (Health), Dr. VK Paul. The theme for National Birth Defect Awareness Month in 2024 is “Inclusive Support for Children with Birth Defects: Breaking Barriers.” According to a Ministry of Health and Family Welfare press release, “the birth defects awareness campaign would be focusing on the awareness about prevention, early identification, and timely management.” Rashtriya Bal Swashtya Karyakram (RBSK), which is proving to be a catalyst in child health, was praised by Dr. Paul in his remarks on the occasion. “The program has examined 160 crore children, and it is a guarantee for child health,” he declared.
He appreciated the work of Mobile Health teams and District Early Interventions teams for ensuring child health and reaching to the hinterlands for successful implementation of RBSK.
“Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is an aspirational scheme which covers half of India’s health and that can be instrumental in child health too along with existing Rashtriya Bal Swashtya Karyakram.” he said.
“Dr Paul said that there is a need to address the birth defects to lower the child mortality, though the ratio of birth defects’ mortality is less compared to deaths caused by malaria, pneumonia and other diseases,” as per the release.
“Achieving complete health for children is our priority under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, and this National Birth Defect Awareness Month 2024 campaign would be a catalyst in raising the awareness for the cause,” he stated. “In order to address the issue of birth defects, more coverage and intensity need to be done,” he continued. Since children are most susceptible to birth defects, Dr. VK Paul also urged students to choose pediatrics in PG to support and strengthen child health. Given the problems with birth defects, even the family feels alone. This campaign will deal with them,” he stated. “Folic Acid supplementation is a very effective modality, especially for neural tube defects (NTDs).
“Pre-pregancy care is significant for a woman, nutritional status, BMI, Thyroid and UTI etc. should also be taken care as this would help in healthy child birth”, he added.
Apurva Chandra, Union Health Secretary emphasized on early identification of birth defects especially Club Foot, Hearing impairments, retinal defects, cleft lips etc. as these impaire child’s future. Elated with the campaign, he said this month-long awareness campaign will be instrumental in addressing the child birth defects issue.
“Keeping registry of child birth defects through the ABHA can play a siginificant role in keeping records of children treated or not treated and further actions can be steered accordingly in identification and treatment”, he added.
