In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Andhra Pradesh government will take up a massive cancer screening exercise from September.
Under the initiative, people aged above 30 will be screened under the government’s Comprehensive Cancer Care (CCC) programme.
The State Health Department has devised the CCC programme to ensure that by 2030 no cancer patient is required to go out of the State for treatment.
Of the five areas that need to be focused under the CCC programme, the first two are creating awareness among people and screening them for various types of cancer. The others are treatment, palliative care and research.
“The Health Department is preparing a massive screening programme under which all those aged above 30 will be screened,” Health and Family Welfare Commissioner J. Nivas told The Hindu.
“Currently, Mid-Level Healthcare Providers (MLHPs) and Medical Officers are being trained in Anakapalli and Tirupati districts by the nodal agencies, Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, Visakhapatnam, and SVIMS Cancer Centre, Tirupati, respectively,” Mr. Nivas said.
“We have already trained 52 teams in all the districts. All MLHPs will be trained in Anakapalli and Tirupati. Training will be completed in one-and-a-half months after which the screening programme will begin,” he said.
“The MLHPs will examine people in the target age group and refer cases that require further screening to the Medical Officers, who in turn will suggest a biopsy, or other types of confirmatory tests,” Mr. Nivas said.
Appeal to private hospitals
Special Chief Secretary (Health, Medical and Family Welfare) M.T. Krishna Babu, while appealing to the private healthcare facilities to support the screening programme by providing the required infrastructure, said about 62,000 cancer cases were being diagnosed in the State every year.
“Early detection is key to treatment. The government will provide land for establishment of Health Hubs to improve tertiary healthcare services in the rural areas. The private hospitals need to come forward to construct and operate the Health Hubs,” Mr. Krishna Babu said.
Notified disease
It is targeted to complete the cancer screening programme in a year. Andhra Pradesh is one of the few States to declare cancer as a notified disease following the recommendations of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in May 2022.
