A rare liver disease, which was considered to have been wiped out from the country, is making a comeback.
Indian Childhood Cirrhosis (ICC), a chronic liver disease common to the Indian subcontinent, can prove fatal for children between one and three years of age.
The disease, which is characterised by cirrhosis of the liver due to deposition of copper, was widely prevalent in most parts of the country till the mid 1980s. But over the last three decades the number of cases has gone down and since the start of this century, there has been no report of ICC. But recently, a case came up at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, sparking concern.The case pertained to 10-month-old Theja Nezu, a pre- term boy hailing from Kohima, Nagaland.
” When the boy was three months old, doctors at his hometown noticed that the baby has progressive jaundice. But they couldn’t identify the cause and referred the case to our hospital,” Dr Nishant Wadhwa, consultant and chief, division of paediatric hepatology and liver transplant at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said.
“The baby also had fever along with cough and had difficulty in breathing for six days prior to reaching the hospital,” Dr Wadhwa said.
“The child had severe difficulty in breathing and had jaundice with enlargement of liver and spleen besides signs of liver and respiratory failure. He had to be admitted in the ICU and required mechanical ventilation for 10 days. We planned liver transplant to save his life with his maternal aunt acting as the donor,” the doctor said.
