IMA to open 1,700 adolescent clinics

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) will open 1,700 adolescent clinics in the country to educate the girl child on lifestyle and on reproductive and mental health.

At present two lakh children die of diarrhoea and three lakh due to pneumonia every year, which is not acceptable to the medical profession, IMA secretary general K.K. Aggrawal said Saturday.

"No child should die of diarrhoea and pneumonia," he said at the annual conference of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics.

"Why report a rare congo fever death and not report a preventable neo-natal death?" asked Aggarwal to over 2,500 child specialists who gathered in the city.

He said the IMA will open 1,700 adolescent clinics in the country.

No child should die just because preventive and infrastructure facilities are not available for treating diarrhoea and pneumonia. For every neo-natal death, someone should be held accountable.

The IMA will sensitise over 2.5 lakh doctors on the subject, he added.