Health ministry plans kits to make you eat right

The ministry is also planning ‘The Eat Right Movement’ under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which will have two components: Eat Healthy and Eat Safe.
(From left) Director of National Health Mission Ramchandran R, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health  and Family Welfare, Vikas Sheel, and Dr K S Sachdeva speak to media on Monday |  Nagaraja Gadekal
(From left) Director of National Health Mission Ramchandran R, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Vikas Sheel, and Dr K S Sachdeva speak to media on Monday | Nagaraja Gadekal

BENGALURU: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), plans to launch testing kits called ‘Food Safety Magic Box’ placed in primary health centres (PHCs) and Ayushman Bharat Health Wellness Centres (AB-HWC’s) to ensure people eat clean, healthy food. The ministry plans to come out with these in 2021.  “The food safety magic box will help patients test the food they generally eat in the magic box and the reports will be given on whether that food is healthy or not. This is to make them aware about what is important and what is not. This will also deter retailers from adulterating food,” said Vikas Sheel, Joint Secretary, MoHFW. 

The ministry is also planning ‘The Eat Right Movement’ under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which will have two components: Eat Healthy and Eat Safe. The Community Health Officer(CHO) will tell people what is healthy and safe to eat. Other activities like zumba, cycling, exercises and other sports game will be part of it. 

Some of the new packages include screening, prevention, control and management of non-communicable diseases and chronic communicable diseases like tuberculosis and leprosy, basic oral health care, basic management of mental health ailments, care for common ophthalmic and ENT problem, elderly and palliative health care services and emergency medical services including burns and trauma. These are planned to be launched on April 14 as part of second anniversary of the programme. 

This is in addition to six existing packages at AB-HWC which include care in pregnancy and child birth, neonatal and infant health care services, childhood and adolescent health care services, family planning. The aim is also to have one MBBS doctor in each centre to provide the packages. 

Across India  

Footfall: 1,007.61 L

Male: 460.54
Female: 547.07

 HWCs in Karnataka 
Total HWCs operation 
1,930 across 30 districts

Footfall at HWCs : More than 59 lakh

Total CHOs trained: 1,464

AIM TO ELIMINATE TB BY 2025
Sheel said, “In 2018, at the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) we had detected 17.5 lakhs cases of TB, against the estimate number of more than 27 lakhs. We were missing about 10 lakh cases every year of TB. We now have a gap of 2 lakh and NTEP will achieve its goal by 2025. We will also be focussing on the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) simultaneously.”

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