Health Seminar

The first ICAM health seminar for 2022 was held virtually on Sunday, February 6, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Three experts presented on timely topics of great relevance to the community.  Dr. Rana Chakraborty, MD DPhil (Pediatric Infectious Diseases expert) shared latest information on COVID-19 vaccination for children in his presentation entitled “COVID-19 vaccination and your child?  Balancing the risks and benefits against the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet”.  He described how a pathogen can emerge and evolve to rapidly cause global disease. He shared that in addition to impacting child health directly, the pandemic has had a significant negative and long-lasting impact on child education and development, mental health and socio-economic vulnerability. Dr. Chakraborty’s talk highlighted that understanding the pathophysiology of the acute and chronic consequences of SARS-Cov-2 infection will lead to more knowledge of host pathogen interaction and will improve diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in the future.  Additionally, public/private pharmaceutical partnerships can deliver effective treatments and prevention approaches in a short time frame.      

Dr. Richa Sood, MD MS FACP (women’s health expert) delivered a presentation entitled “Menopause: myths and facts”.  Dr. Sood highlighted various myths regarding menopause in Indian women.  She described how Indian women enter menopause sooner by several years and get earlier bone thinning, diabetes and risk of heart disease.  Indian women are experiencing breast cancer earlier and experience similar transition symptoms as women of other ethnic groups.  She emphasized thåat symptoms of transition can be easily and safely treated.  She reviewed that life in menopause represents almost 1/3 of the total span and menopause is a good time to focus on good self-care, get preventative screens and add life back to the years.    

Dr. Bhanuprakash Kolla, MD FRCPsych (Associate Professor of Psychiatry) presented a talk entitled “Depression - a common and treatable illness: a South Asian perspective”. Dr. Kolla shared that depression is common and is much more than just sadness.  It is highly prevalent in the general population and common in South Asian and immigrant populations as well. The diagnosis is based on clinical assessment and in general no tests are required. Depression is associated with an increased risk of suicide. Dr. Kolla summarized several measures that people can take to reduce the risk of developing depression and that multiple effective treatment options are available.    

Dr. Seema Kumar, MD 

On Behalf of ICAM health committee