Kerala screens everyone above thirty for lifestyle disease, down to the sub-centre

Background

Kerala's primary health network is being strengthened again, and the programme it carries is a standing exam topic. The State's non-communicable diseases prevention and control programme was designed by the State health mission and described by it as the first of its kind in the country. It was pilot tested in 2008-09 in Neyyattinkara taluk of Thiruvananthapuram district and in the whole of Wayanad district. Under Amrutham Arogyam clinics the population above 30 years of age is screened irrespective of disease condition, with free supply of medicines for all detected with NCDs. The programme covers district and general hospitals, taluk hospitals, community health centres, primary health centres and 5400 sub centres, each sub centre serving about five thousand people. Kerala also runs SWAAS for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with the Chest Disease Hospital at Pulayanarkottah, Thiruvananthapuram designated as the State COPD Centre. The India Hypertension Control Initiative, a collaboration of ICMR, the Union Health Ministry, the Government of Kerala, WHO and Resolve to Save Lives, runs in Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Kannur and Wayanad.