BHUBANESWAR: The State Government is going to launch a population-based screening programme for five non communicable diseases (NCDs) including oral, breast and cervical cancer for the first time in Odisha on the occasion of World Cancer Day on Saturday.
The programme will be launched in Khurda district to initially train Asha workers for door-to-door screening of people. It is being conducted under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancers, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS).
State nodal officer of NPCDCS Dr PKB Patnaik said separate models have been prepared for Asha, ANM and medical managers under the programme. While institutional-based screening was being carried out earlier, population-based screening will be done now, he said.
‘’Post-training, the Asha workers will visit each and every family in their locality, create a family folder as designed by health experts and screen family members verbally. They will ask certain questions to people and screen them for five diseases - diabetics, hypertension, oral, breast and cervical cancer,’’ he said.
As per statistics, these five diseases constitute nearly 40 per cent of the disease burden in the country. While the country has about 10 lakh cancer patients now, the number is projected to reach 17 lakh by 2030. Similarly, the number of death due to cancer will also increase from 6.8 lakh to 12 lakh during the period.
Dr Patnaik said the population-based screening programme will be implemented in selected districts and later, it will be upscaled to other parts of the State.