Creating awareness about celiac diseases social responsibility: Shafqat

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood Thursday said that creating awareness about celiac diseases was their social responsibility, which would benefit more people in the country.

Addressing the participants of one-day seminar on ‘Prevention of Celiac Diseases and our Social Responsibilities,’ organised by National Council of Social Welfare at National Institute of Special Education, the minister said that he was himself facing wheat use allergy.

He said that he liked ‘tandoor roti’ from childhood, adding that after sometime, he felt pain and swelling due to which tests were conducted. He said that a disease was diagnosed about which he heard for the first time. The minister said that he was restrained from using wheat roti (bread).

He said that due to this disease a person has to go through number of tests. Due to this disease, a person could not use wheat bread or other wheat products. He said patients suffering from this disease face a number of problems and they had no option but to bear it and the only remedy for this disease was to take preventive measures. The minister said people get awareness and information about the disease from seminars like this. He said awareness was very essential to prevent the onset of this disease.

Shafqat Mahmood lauded the efforts of National Council of Social Welfare for organizing the seminar on an important issue and urged experts to lead efforts to spread information about this health hazard. Parliamentary Secretary Wajiha Akram said such awareness programmes helped people to change their behaviour and lifestyle that fosters healthy environment.