BS RAWAT
NEW DELHI : Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), Delhi, has opened Delhi’s first Pediatric Allergy and Pulmonology Lab at the hospital with the objective of efficiently managing patients with asthma and allergies and to achieve excellence in the field through innovations, training and research activities.

The lab was inaugurated by Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan in the presence of Dr D S Rana, Chairman, Board of Management, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

The lab offers various services including environmental allergy testing, pulmonary services, preparation of allergy serum, allergy injection, and developmental support team, retinopathy of prematurity screening program, therapeutic laser therapy and universal hearing screening.

Dr Anil Sachdeva, a pulmonologist and pediatrician, said that he is seeing about 20 patients a day, and seven out of 10 are suffering from some sort of allergy, respiratory problem or cough, an even watery eyes. 50 per cent of the patients are fresh cases.”

He claimed, “The lab is the first of its kind in Delhi that has new allergy testing and novel pulmonary function assessment tools.”

Dr Neeraj Gupta, consultant-pediatrics and allergy specialist highlighted the growing allergic disorders in the country and stressed the increasing need of more training and educational activities at the national platform.

Dr Gupta also emphasized the importance of incorporation of allergy education in the medical curriculum and added that the new lab is very useful for students and practitioners.

On the occasion, a 3-day international conference on childhood allergies was also organized by the Division of Pediatric Emergency, Critical Care, Pulmonology & Allergic Disorders, Department of Pediatrics at SGRH.

The conference covered various types of allergy manifestations including asthma, rhinitis, skin and food allergies, human-environment interactions, newer diagnostic methods like skin test and impulse oscillometry as well as allergy treatment with immunotherapy.