Hyderabad hosted South Asia’s largest IBD conference by Dr. Rupa Banerjee

Hyderabad : Those who suffer from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) do so for the rest of their lives. Increased worldwide incidence rates of inflammatory bowel disease have placed additional strain on healthcare systems. Although it was formerly thought to be a Western illness, cases and frequency are on the rise in previously safe regions of Asia. Increases in industrialization, Westernisation, and climate change are likely to blame for the dramatic increase in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cases in India during the last two decades.

Positive results are more likely with prompt diagnosis and treatment. Concurrently, proper measures to raise public health consciousness and prevent illness need to be put in place.

Dr. D Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman and Chief of Gastroenterology at AIG Hospitals, has said, “We will continue our efforts to address the burden, find the right solutions, and we hope to discover a cure for IBD in the near future.”

We can now claim that IBD is mostly a lifestyle illness. There has been a dramatic increase in the use of additives and preservatives in packaged food items, the widespread marketing of fast food, the decreased reliance on native ingredients, and the adulteration of farming practises to increase yield, all of which are consequences of globalisation. Sr. Consultant Gastroenterologist and Director of the IBD Centre at AIG Hospitals, Dr. Rupa Banerjee, has claimed that all of these factors are contributing to the growth of inflammatory bowel illnesses in India.

Over the years, the AIG Hospitals, has created a strong multidisciplinary team including Medical Gastroenterologists, Surgical Gastroenterologists, Radiologists, and Nutritionists into the development of an exclusive center for IBD, known as the ‘IBD Center of Excellence.’ This center offers a wide array of IBD-related diagnostic, treatment and maintenance services to patients constantly working towards improving their quality of life.

The center is actively involved in research on the genetics and epidemiology of this growing disease.

In fact, the center has a one-of-a-kind, fully functional microbiome research laboratory which is equipped with the latest technology to study the gut microbiome. “As research has shown that gut microbial imbalance or dysbiosis seems to be playing a critical role in IBD, we provide a complete gut microbiome profile for healthy and IBD patients with a detailed report and a personalised diet chart recommended for your gut based on the microbiome profile,” Dr. Banerjee further added.

With an interesting theme of “Optimizing IBD Management’ AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad hosted one of the first and largest conferences in the world dedicated to IBD. The conference had over 1500 delegates who had the opportunity to learn, share, and network with some of the topmost IBD experts across the world.

The conference constituted State-of-the-Art lectures, the well-known Live IBD Endoscopy Workshop, a dedicated Post-Graduate course, and a Biologics Symposium, covering the entire spectrum of management of this chronic lifelong condition.