The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) has initiated a two-day training on ‘Comprehensive Birth Defects Screening at Delivery Points’ for the medical officers of Assam.
The training session organized by the National Health Mission (NHM), Assam under the RBSK, was started on Wednesday at the NHM, Assam headquarters in Chritian Basti area in Guwahati.
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Dr Arun Kr Singh, National Advisor, Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), Government of India, conducted the training for the medical officers of Assam on ‘Comprehensive Birth Defects Screening at Delivery Points’ on Wednesday.
As per information, after the training, the medical officers would train the concerned medical officers in the district level across the State within next two months.
“This for the first time that we are looking at screening visible birth defects at delivery points. Before this, we were focusing on children in schools and Anganwadi centres where our teams conduct screenings and refer cases for treatment,” Rijumoni Ahmed, programme consultant, RBSK, told Northeast Now.
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Over 50 medical officers from 27 districts have participated in the training.
According to official reports, in 2017 between April to November, 78,095 cases were identified by the Mobile Health Teams from schools and Anganwadi centres and treatment was provided to 59,693 children. Currently, there are 306 such teams in Assam.
After the screening and identification, the affected children are provided free treatment.
“Most of the affected population belong to BPL families and reside in remote areas. Moreover, the local PHCs provide a preliminary screening. So, after the identification, it is difficult to assess if they complete the treatment,” added Ahmed.
The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) programme was implemented from June 2014 in Assam to improve child mortality and survival. It aims at early identification and early intervention to cover 4 Ds – defects at birth, deficiencies, diseases, development delays including disability.