Chennai:<\/b> The Tamil Nadu Health Department, in collaboration with the National Health Mission (NHM), is in the process of establishing two state-of-the-art Centres of Excellence for the prevention, diagnosis, and management of genetic disorders in Coimbatore and Madurai. <\/p>\n
These upcoming centres are modelled after the existing and operational facility at the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children (ICH) in Chennai. <\/p>\n
Officials confirmed that construction is underway and nearly 50 per cent of the infrastructure work has been completed. <\/p>\n
The government has earmarked Rs 8.19 crore to fund the creation of these specialised centres, which are expected to significantly enhance Tamil Nadu\u2019s capacity to manage genetic disorders that contribute to the state\u2019s Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR). <\/p>\n
\u201cThese centres are being established with the vision of improving early diagnosis and care for children suffering from rare and complex genetic conditions,\u201d said Dr S. Srinivasan, expert advisor for Child health at NHM-Tamil Nadu. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe model at ICH in Chennai has proven successful, and we are now replicating it in government medical college hospitals in Coimbatore and Madurai,\u201d said Srinivasan. <\/p>\n
The Centres of Excellence will cater to a wide spectrum of genetic and metabolic disorders. These include hemoglobinopathies like thalassemia and sickle cell anemia, chromosomal disorders, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), other neuromuscular conditions, lysosomal storage diseases (LSD), mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS), congenital adrenal hyperplasia, congenital hypothyroidism, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6PD) deficiency, and cystic fibrosis. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are often life-limiting conditions that need timely and advanced diagnostic tools for proper management,\u201d Dr Srinivasan added. <\/p>\n
At the Chennai facility, high-end diagnostic equipment such as Tandem Mass Spectrometry (TMS) and Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) machines have already been installed and are operational. These tools allow for the comprehensive screening and diagnosis of rare genetic disorders. <\/p>\n
TMS, for instance, is used to detect inborn errors of metabolism (IEM), a group of rare disorders caused by enzyme deficiencies that prevent the body from properly converting food into energy. \u201cWith these advanced technologies, we are able to not only diagnose but also offer targeted treatment solutions and genetic counselling to families,\u201d said Dr Srinivasan. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt marks a crucial step toward bringing precision medicine into the public health system,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The centres in Coimbatore and Madurai are expected to be fully functional in the coming months. Once operational, they will play a pivotal role in addressing the burden of genetic disorders in the state, providing life-saving diagnostics and care to vulnerable children and their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Health Department, in collaboration with the National Health Mission (NHM), is in the process…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[21956,8748,267,60451,60450,60351,35595,60449,60452,20066,70,60448,40064,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-138880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-coimbatore","9":"tag-genetic-disorders","10":"tag-genetics","11":"tag-infant-mortality","12":"tag-institute-of-child-health","13":"tag-madurai","14":"tag-ngs","15":"tag-nhm","16":"tag-public-health-innovation","17":"tag-rare-diseases","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-tamil-nadu-health","20":"tag-tms","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114585884151331164","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}