Health minister inaugurates paediatric clinic at Limassol General Hospital

Health Minister Popi Kanari on Friday inaugurated the new paediatrics clinic ‘Americos Argyriou’ at Limassol General.

“It is with particular joy and pleasure that I am given the opportunity today to address the opening of the ‘Americos Argyriou’ Paediatric Clinic at Limassol General Hospital,” she said.

Speaking at the event, she said a few words about doctor Argyriou, after whom the clinic is named and his work in Cyprus.

Americos Argyriou was born in Poli Chrysochou in 1924. He graduated from the Pancyprian Lyceum and the American Academy of Larnaca and then studied medicine at the University of Athens. He retrained in Paediatrics in the UK and on a World Health Organization scholarship, trained in infant and maternal public health at the American University of Beirut.

In 1970, he left the position of Director of the paediatric department of the Limassol Hospital and went private, creating the first private paediatric clinic in Cyprus, equipped with four incubators. He recorded an enviable career spanning decades serving paediatrics selflessly and ethically, healing, relieving and comforting, as commanded by the Hippocratic Oath.

She said that in 1969 he proceeded together with other distinguished fellow citizens, to create the Theotokos Foundation.

“Their ultimate goal was to ensure decent living conditions and care for children with mental disablities who, until then, lived in the shadows, despised by society and the state. With zeal and dedication and at the expense of his personal life, the doctor remained at the head of the institution until his old age, multiplying the services it offered, such as early intervention, education, social integration, etc,” she said.

She added that the at the helm of the foundation, he transformed perceptions of children with mental disabilities.

Commenting on the advancements in medicine that Argyriou brought, she said that in the 1970s new advancements came in the field of medicine to deal with certain mental disabilities.

“On his own initiative and based on the Theotokos Foundation, he proceeded in 1988 to create the Centre for the Prevention of Mental Disabilities. First, in 1989, the newborn screening program was created to screen all newborns (public and private sector) for two metabolic diseases: congenital hypothyroidism and phenylketonuria. He took care to secure the cooperation of all paediatricians in the country and to ensure that services were offered free of charge to all. No child was to be left out of the program. The effort was titanic, but he himself was unyielding. Success was not long in coming. In a very short time, sick newborns began to be identified and given timely treatment that ensured their healthy development. The Ministry of Health supported this effort and will continue to support it,” she said.

She added that in 1991, the centre launched its second national screening program. The Prenatal Control Program, offering, again free of charge, to all pregnant women in the public and private sector, biochemical tests for the detection of chromosomal abnormalities, with trisomy 21 being the most common.

“To date, these two programs are offered exclusively by the centre, with great success and he participation of the entire population,” she said.

She said that she hoped for the work that Americos Argyriou left behind, there will be successors, who will follow his own example, for the good of society.