Clinicians and rehabilitation assistants are being trained in Malawi's commercial city of Blantyre in an effort to decentralise the treatment of clubfoot.
About 1,200 children are born with the deformity every year and there is an urgent need to decentralise treatment as only 200 cases received treatment every year.
Project coordinator Harris Sakala said that treatment of clubfoot started in the country only in the year 2000 and that Beit Cure International Hospital has been the only facility offering such treatment.
He added that research was going on to establish the cause of clubfoot with arguments that it is caused by genetic problems and malnutrition.
Clubfoot, a birth defect where the foot is twisted in and the affected walk almost on their ankles, is treated by repositioning the foot.
After two to four months when the foot is in good position, the child is given special shoes to wear for sometime to make sure the feet stay corrected.
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
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