NEW DELHI: Often mocked as “Suraj-mukhi” (sun-facing) or “Angrez” (British) due to their pale skin tone, as many as two lakh Indians, including health professionals, suffering from Albinism – a rare genetic condition – face daily exposure to harmful UV radiation and social discrimination.Taking up their cause, Doctors with Disabilities: Agents of Change, a body of health professionals with disabilities for social justice, has written to the 25th World Health Organisation (WHO) Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines, to include sunscreen on the Essential Medicines List.In the letter to the members of the expert committee, Dr Satendra Singh, the group’s founder and a noted disability rights champion, said, “We write to express our strong and wholehearted support for the inclusion of sunscreen on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, a matter to be discussed at your forthcoming 25th meeting in Geneva, from May 5 to 9.”“Adopting this critical decision is not only a matter of public health – it is a climate justice and human rights imperative. Sunscreen is far more than a cosmetic product. It is a vital, life-saving medical intervention, particularly for persons with albinism, who face unique biological vulnerabilities to ultraviolet (UV) radiation,” Dr Singh, who is also a Director Professor of the Department of Physiology, University College of Medical Sciences and G.T.B Hospital, Delhi, said.
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