Conference on metabolic disorders begins today

The fourth edition of the national conference of the Indian Society of Inborn Errors of Metabolism will focus on setting up parent support groups.

The two-day conference, to be held in the city from Friday, will aim to impress on the government the need to maintain the affected children on a diet specially suited to their requirements.

There are around 700 different kinds of metabolic disorders that children could suffer from but worldwide, only 75 metabolic disorders have been identified for which treatment is offered. In such children, due to genetic errors, enzymes to break down food are not found, leading to serious complications.

The conference organising chairman, S. Suresh, said the aim of such conferences was to send a message to the government that there must be a policy to screen newborns to identify such rare diseases. “We need to create a mechanism and the infrastructure to reduce the burden on parents and ensure quality of life for such children,” he said.

“When enzymes are inadequately formed, they are unable to adequately perform their functions in the body. In the United States, food is manufactured to suit the requirements of such children. At present, dieticians ration the food among the children,” said Indrani Suresh, organising chairperson.

Organising secretary of ISIEM, Sujatha Jagadeesh, said awareness about such diseases was still very low. The conference would discuss the possibilities of setting up laboratories to test metabolic errors, she added.