Shanghai's first clinic to treat children's hormonal disorders
including short stature, early puberty and obesity opened
yesterday.
And one of the first patients at Shanghai Jiangao Pediatric
Clinic was 12-year-old Bai Fengli, who was given free hormone
therapy to increase her growth.
At just 1.29 meters tall, she is 26 centimeters shorter than her
classmates at Nanqiao Middle School.
The girl, whose parents come from Shandong Province and run a fruit stall in
Shanghai, is expected to grow six centimeters after three months of
medication.
"Though the parents took her to local hospitals for her
shortness in 2004, they delayed her treatment due to poor awareness
about her disease and financial difficulty," said Zhang Zhiming,
director of Jiangao clinic. "Early detection and proper treatment
are the key to help children grow. So we also plan to launch public
education to increase people's awareness on their children's
growth."
About 1.9 to 2.4 percent of Chinese children are short, with
local children's hospitals seeing about 2,500 short children every
month, experts said.
"Short stature is not only about a person's appearance.
Researchers found 52.05 percent of short children have depression
and other mental problems because of their height," said Dr Shan
Yuming from Huashan Hospital's hormone department.
"All kinds of children's growth diseases can be tough to deal
with and influence their mental health," she said.
She added the incidence of children's obesity is over 10 percent
in Shanghai. And about one percent of children suffer early
puberty.
(Shanghai Daily September 19, 2007)