Press Release Urdu (April - May 2012)

Press Release March 2012

Over 9,000 babies born with cleft lip

KARACHI: Around 9,000 children are born every year with cut lips or clefts in Pakistan, said plastic surgeon Dr Ashraf Ganatra.

"During the first three months of pregnancy, the child’s face starts to form. All parts of the face form separately and later join together. In many cases, these parts do not join and the baby is born with a cleft or cut lip or both", he said while speaking at a free surgery camp organized by the Al-Mustafa Welfare Society (AMWS) at its Gulshan-e-Iqbal center on Wednesday.

Ganatra applauded the AMWS for funding the free surgery camp as the treatment is costly and many patients cannot afford it.

Haji Muhammad Hanif Tayyab, the patron-in-chief of AMWS was also present.

Tokens were issued for free surgery to 123 children with cut lips and 78 with clefts.

Source:Daily Times (Pakistan)

Cleft-lip and palate deformity: Taiwan doctors to treat kids in flood-hit areas

LAHORE, Feb 24: A team of doctors and social workers from Taiwan will be visiting flood-hit areas of Pakistan for a week and treat children with cleft lip and palate deformity free of cost, besides distributing rice and other relief goods among the affected people.

Plastic surgeons Yu-Fang, Philip Chen and Frank Chun Chang have already left for southern Punjab along with a 40-member team of doctors and paramedics, Cleft Lip and Palate Association of Pakistan (Clapp) secretary-general Prof Dr Ghulam Qadir Fayyaz told newsmen at the Lahore Press Club on Thursday.

Financial aid to the tune of $50,000, besides 100,000kg rice, had been donated by Taiwan for the people affected during the last year floods, said Dr Fayyaz who was flanked by Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation executive director Rebecca Wang and Debi Fan. Al-Mustafa Welfare Trust representative advocate Mian Khalid Habib Elahi was also present.

The relief team would distribute 50,000 kilo rice (sent by Taiwan government), cooking oil, tea, sugar, pulses and milk for children, among the affected people in Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The medical team during its visit would perform surgeries on some 100 children with cleft lip and palate deformity in collaboration with Clapp at DG Khan Government Hospital from Feb 25 to 27.

Dr Fayyaz said the surgery on a child costs at least Rs50,000 at private hospitals in the country. However, Clapp performed the surgeries free of cost and even bore the medicine expenditure, he added.

"Some 10,000 children are born with cleft lip and palate deformity in Pakistan every year while the number stands at 33,000 globally. Pakistan is ranked fourth in the world, having over 300,000 children with the deformity, with China, India and Indonesia being top three countries in this regard, respectively. Most of the cases in Pakistan are treatable with one operation, as plastic surgery facilities are available in majority hospitals in cities", he said.

Mr Elahi said with the collaboration of Al-Mustafa Welfare Trust, work on a housing colony at Basti Meeranwala of Thatta Gormani village at Kot Addu was under way.

Comprising a room, a kitchen and a bathroom, some 50 houses would be constructed there and handing over of the same would start by March 31 to the affected people, he added. A mosque would also be constructed at Basti Meeranwala where provision of education and basic amenities like clean drinking water, sewerage and electricity were being ensured, he said. — Staff Reporter

Source:Dawn Provinces (Pakistan)

Press Release (2011)