Bhayandar: In response to the government’s directives, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation’s (MBMC) health department has rolled up its sleeves to launch a city-wide survey and campaign to collect data and spread awareness on non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
In the first phase of the week-long campaign starting on September 23, the civic administration will reach out to around 1.23 lakh people living in 30, 672 households tagged as vulnerable and situated in slum clusters, tribal hamlets, gaothans and coastal areas of the twin-city. Armed with a targeted health assessment questionnaire, 123 teams consisting of two members (male and female) under the supervision of 25 health inspectors will conduct door-to-door visits to understand the risk factor of individuals.
“The field team consisting of auxiliary nurse mid-wife, multi-purpose health workers, accredited social health activists (ASHA) volunteers and other link workers attached to the local public health centres (PHC) are being trained before deployment for data collection. The compiled data will be used for further diagnosis and to chalk out an elaborate roadmap for proper treatment,” said Deputy Municipal Commissioner Dr Sambhajji Panpatte.
A wide range of behaviours like tobacco and alcohol use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and increasing stress along with physiological risk factors like hypertension, raised levels of blood sugar, cholesterol have been identified as major underlying determinants of NCDs, which are turning out to be leading causes for the alarming rise in mortality rate across the globe.
By Suresh Golani
