Corpn plans door-to-door diabetes survey

Published Date: 27-01-2010
By G Saravanan

Chennai, January 26: IN a first of its kind exercise by the Chennai Corporation’s health department to document the prevalence and trends of diabetes in the city, the civic body is embarking on a massive door-to-door survey from Wednesday.

Speaking to Express, Corporation Health Officer, Dr P Kuganantham said, “The large scale exercise expected to cover several thousand families in the next few days across the city would unearth the trend of prevalence and also help the civic body get comprehensive details about the disease.”

More than 700 health department officials, including sanitary inspectors and health workers, would go on a door-to-door diabetes detection survey and also campaign among residents insisting that they attend the mega diabetes camp to be organised by the civic body on Saturday at 30 different locations. After the survey, those with suspected diabetes and identified diabetic patients would be referred to the mega diabetes camp for further remedy.

Explaining the need for such a detailed survey, Dr Kuganantham said, “Currently even the metropolitan cities like New Delhi and Mumbai do not have any authenticated records on diabetes prevalence there and the survey in Chennai would help the civic body to approach the problem in a systematic manner.”

During the survey, civic body staff would enquire the families about the living environment, food habits, family medical history, occupation and alcohol consumption besides several other important details.

The comprehensive survey results are expected in the next couple of weeks. During the mega camp (scheduled on Saturday) Corporation medical officers would study the patient’s diabetic complications in heart, eye, kidney and foot. And those requiring further medical attention would be referred to government hospitals, Dr Kuganantham said.