New Delhi, Aug 14 (UNI) Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon, who attended the annual conference of the Spina Bifida Foundation of India, said she is concerned at the alarming rate of the birth defect incidences in India.

The Spina Bifida Foundation of India and the International Federation of SB, had organised the three-day long 28th Annual International Conference on Preventive, Antenatal and Management aspects of Birth Defects.

'I am very concerned at the alarming rate of the birth defect incidences in India. It’s unfortunately the highest number in the World. Lack of information is one of the biggest reasons for this defect among the children,' Raveena said.

'Even having simple, easy and economical solution, children are still dealing with lifelong disabilities. Spreading information and making people aware is the key aspects to fight against this problem,' she said.



Dr Santosh Karmarkar, Founder Trustee, Spina Bifida Foundation, said, 'Prevention of Neural tube defects should be an urgent Public health priority for India, which has one of the highest incidences of this birth defect in the world. The Central and State Governments need to take this up on a war footing and like the polio campaign initiate a campaign for awareness regarding prevention of Spina bifida.'

'This has the potential to prevent more than 25000 children born with childhood paralysis in India every year. The foundation also works equally for the rehabilitation of those who are already born with this devastating birth defect,' Dr Karmarkar said.



Rohit Shelatkar, Vice President of Vitabiotics, UK said, 'Unfortunately birth defects are a common problem faced worldwide, with an estimated 8 million children being born with a serious birth defect every year across the globe. Birth defects are a common cause for death in the first year and for those that survive the mental or physical disability can become costly for those involved.'

'The key and most important message in regards to this conference is that birth defects such as Spina Bifida are 100 per cent preventable. Prevention is simple, easy and also much cheaper than dealing with lifelong disabilities. Taking vitamins as simple as folic acid and B12 during pregnancy have been proven to help prevent neural tube defects, hence raising awareness and educating people on this topic is key, whether that is via

doctors’ education or conferences such as this. Also Media support and government support is important to bring about any major change in the current situation,' Mr Shelatkar added.



Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus are the birth defects result in 40,000 children born with childhood paralysis in India each year.







The three-day International Conference was held recently in association with World Health Organization (WHO) and in collaboration with Meyer Vitabiotics.

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