Sun, 30 Aug 2015

Aayushi Pratap
htmetro@hindustantimes.com

Fellow patients to share rare drug with Pakistan teenager

A group of patients, who attended a gathering on Wilson’s Disease at the Tata Memorial Hospital, have volunteered to give her (Saba Ahmed) the tablets after learning about her struggles.
DR ABHA NAGRAL

MUMBAI: Doctors at Jaslok Hospital, Peddar Road, will finally be able to give Pakistan citizen Saba Ahmed a new drug after she was unable to tolerate the standard drug given to most Wilson’s Disease patients.

HT

Saba Ahmed with her mother, Nazia (extreme right), and Dr Abha Nagral (extreme left) on Saturday.

What’s heartening is that fellow patients will share the drug with Ahmed after hearing her story at a gathering on Wilson’s Disease held at Tata Memorial Hospital on Saturday.

The ailing teenager came to the city on Monday after her condition deteriorated and she was unable to undergo physiotherapy in Karachi.

For the past week, doctors have been struggling to procure the new drug which will help improve Ahmed’s condition. They were unable to start her treatment as this drug is not available in India. Wilson’s Disease has confined Ahmed to a wheelchair and she is unable to swallow.

Her plight, however, will end soon as a group of patients who have procured this drug from foreign countries are willing to share it with her.

“A group of patients, who attended a gathering on Wilson’s Disease at the Tata Memorial Hospital, have volunteered to give her the tablets after learning about her struggles,” said Dr Abha Nagral, gastroenterologist, who is treating Ahmed.

Nagral added that there is a pressing need for drugs that are required to treat rare genetic disorders, including Wilson’s Disease, as most pharmaceutical companies do not manufacture them.

Wilson’s Disease is an inherited condition in which copper accumulates in the liver, brain and other vital organs.