Arogya Abhiyan to reach out to slums, tackle fatal communicable diseases……..Jinal Shah
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently launched a mass urban slum outreach programme – Mumbai Arogya Abhiyan (MAA)– to tackle deaths due to communicable diseases. The civic body officials said lessons learnt during the swine-flu outbreak helped them strategise it.
“The programme will cover 70 to 80 lakh slumdwellers. Five teams of intern doctors from preventive social medicine department of the four medical colleges and doctors from public health department will visit slums every day,” said additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar.
The BMC will conduct Information Education and Communication (IEC) activities on the first two days of the five-day programme.
Community healthcare workers will inform slumdwellers on the site of the camps.
“We will screen patients at the camps which will serve as Out Patient Departments (OPDs). Basic medicines for minor ailments will be provided at the camps that will act as a platform for referral treatment,” said Mhaiskar.
“A very critical finding during the swine-flu and malaria outbreaks last year has revealed that patients either came very late to hospitals or they never came. We’ll try to integrate all health programmes like testing for malaria, immunisation and many other services under MAA.”
“We understand that people from higher economic strata will not avail of the BMC health services. However, the BMC will reach out to school children ,” she added.