KARACHI – Sindh Health Minister Dr Saghir Ahmed has sought public support for the people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. In a statement issued on the World Parkinson’s Disease Day 2011 on Monday, he said that in the country, there are 500,000 registered patients of Parkinson’s disease – a degenerative and age related disorder. The minister assured that all possible assistance would be extended to the sufferers at government facilities.
He, however, reminded that most traumatic is the “sense of being useless” engendered among the patients due to intentional or intentional indifference of their very own.
Since indistinct speech and poor control over motor skills are the associated conditions of the ailment therefore often the people, despite all their sympathies, appear to be helpless in realising the plight of the patients. “Ironically there does not exist any comprehensive treatment for the condition,” said the minister, who is also a doctor.
He, however, said that a few medicines coupled with physiotherapy, care and attention can be of great help to the sufferers, who are mainly senior citizens of the country. The provincial minister for health said the Pakistani society that continues to cherish its integral values of respect and regard for the “elderly” can turn this as a mode to restore confidence among the Parkinson’s disease patients.
