Public Health initiatve; IMA to adopt 100 villages

Thousands of doctors across the state will move to the villages in the next one year, giving fresh impetus to public health and community based programmes for building a healthy Kerala. The doctors under the banner of Indian Medical Association (IMA), which is adopting 100 villages, will focus more on lifestyle diseases and health awareness.

With the adoption of 100 villages in the state, the IMA, Kerala, is gearing up for new initiatives in public health sector and community based programmes, according to IMA state president Sreejth N Kumar. ''We have envisaged a programme – Arogyamaithri --under which 100 villages are being adopted. The focus will be on life style diseases, especially cardiovascular  
problems. Under the adoption programme, the focus will be on tobacco/blood pressure control, which is a major threat in all cardiovascular problems. We would give importance to awareness, detection and treatment of cardiovascular diseases through Arogyamaithri,'' he said.  Moreover, 

cancer screening and its awareness, which is already part of IMA's programme, will continue, he added.

As a first step, medical camps and health awareness programmes will be conducted at these villages. The IMA branches, which comes to 103, will be focussing on each village that comes under its jurisdiction, Sreejith said. 

Talking to Express, IMA Public Health Assurance Committee convenor Dr A Althaf said that the focus of Arogyamathri will be identification of health problems of the locality, health check ups and awareness campaigns. With life style diseases showing an alarming rise in the state, the adoption programme will focus on creating awareness, screening and treatment

Pointing out that the Association had about 27,000 members, he said ''all the active members, including specialty doctors, will participate in the Arogyamaithri programme. Though life style diseases, especially cancer, will be taken up initially, we would be focussing on the requirement of an area.'' He also mentioned that there would be active participation of experts, ward members, local MLA, local politicians and others in the programme. Noting that IMA had earlier also addressed public health issues, he said that it was for the first time that the Association was taking such an initiative related to public health in village level. 

Source The New Indian Express 

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/400765/The-New-Indian-Express-Thiruvananthapuram/22-12-2014#page/5/1