BHUBANESWAR: The three-month long house to house survey to identify people with Covid symptoms has detected a high incidence of hypertension, diabetes, tuberculosis and leprosy at the community level.
The State government had launched the door-to-door survey on Covid-19 and co-morbidities on May 24 which ended on August 23. Sources said the highest 76,816 new cases of hypertension, 56,552 diabetes, 7,399 new TB patients, 3,002 malaria and 1,625 leprosy cases were identified during the survey besides, over two lakh Covid cases.
Even as Odisha had declared itself a leprosy free State in 2006-07, the disease seems to have made a strong comeback with the detection of fresh cases from across districts. As many as 1,12,639 suspected leprosy cases were identified by Anganwadi workers and ASHAs.
Later they were examined by health workers. After preliminary screening, 15,988 suspected cases were examined by medical officers and 1,625 among them confirmed to be leprosy were given multi-drug therapy (MDT).
Similarly, 1,81,622 people of the 1,84,333 identified presumptive TB cases underwent sputum test and 7,399 among them were found to be TB positive in sputum microscopy. Blood samples of 8,37,644 people were sent for malaria tests during screening.
While 3,002 cases were found malaria positive, radical treatment has been completed for all the cases. As many as 59,070 under-5 children found with diarrhoea have also been treated.
Apart from this, 6,796 people had registered for dialysis and 2,657 for chemotherapy during the survey. So far 96 per cent of patients, 6,554 and 2555 respectively have been provided dialysis and chemotherapy.
The ASHAs, Anganwadi and health workers had identified 16,59,621 people with Covid symptoms during the three-month survey and 16,49,916 samples were sent for RTP-CR/antigen tests. A total of 2,04,104 Covid positive cases were detected and 1,97,938 patients were monitored by the rapid response teams. Altogether 95.18 lakh households in over 53,000 villages and 114 urban local bodies were surveyed.
NHM Director Shalini Pandit said apart from Covid symptoms, screening was done for several other comorbid conditions including hypertension, diabetes, cancer, TB and malaria.
“The survey achieved its goal of identifying these conditions in the community. The identified patients have been provided appropriate treatment for their condition. The survey helped in early diagnosis and treatment saving lives,” she added.