With people suspected to have high blood pressure not turning up at Primary Health Centres (PHCs) for confirmation test, the Health Department is conducting outreach camps to confirm the cases. World Hypertension Day, with the theme ‘Know your numbers’, would be observed on May 17. As part of it, medical officers would go to villages and conduct tests. Treatment would be given if needed, said an official from the Health Department.
From 2018, the Health Department has been screening people for high BP and diabetes. During the exercise held as part of Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) screening programme, people above 30 years were tested. As part of the programme, Accredited Social Health Activists go from door-to-door to make enquiries. If one is suspected to be having one or two NCDs, they are referred to PHCs. Officials said the screening was split into three phases with 11 districts covered in each phase. According to data from phase-I, a total of 2,83,41,40 were screened. Of them, only 2,46,791 people, who had hypertension, are undergoing treatment.
The phase-II was launched on February 15 this year. While at least 18% of the people tested were expected to be diagnosed with hypertension, the numbers varied from 8% to 15%, which was low, the officials said. One of the reasons for this was that people were not going to PHCs for confirmation test after an ANM referred them to health centres, said the officials. Hence, the outreach programme.