Centre selects three dists for screening 5 common diseases

DHANBAD: The Centre has selected three districts of Jharkhand — Ranchi, Dhanbad and Bokaro — for screening of five common diseases affecting people between 30 and 65 years and to filter out the maladies.

Working under the banner of the National Programme for Prevention of and Control of Cancer Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke (NPPCDCS), the Centre has selected 100 districts across the country to screen people suffering from diabetes, hypertension, oral cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer.

The pilot programme will begin on November 15, after the doctors and health staff (ANM, Sahiya) of the concerned districts are imparted training.

NPPCDCS Jharkhand nodal officer Dr Lalit Ranjan Pathak said screening of four diseases — diabetes, hypertension, oral and breast cancer — would be conducted in the field. But screening for cervical cancer will be held only at nearby additional or primary health centres as the process requires privacy.

The screening of diabetes, hypertension, oral cancer and breast cancer will be conducted every year, while the test for cervical cancer will be held once in five years.

“The total screening of targeted people has to be completed in three years and the health department has chalked out a plan to achieve 50% target in first year (2017), 16% in the second year and 15% in the third and final year,” said Dr Pathak.

Besides launching an awareness programme about the Centre’s ambitious health plan, the state health department has also directed ANMs and Sahiyas to register the names of people in the selected age group along the lines of an immunisation list, so that each targeted person can be tested.