CATCH gets underway at Development Area

GANGTOK, 30 May: The Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Annual and Total Check-up for Healthy Sikkim (CATCH) programme for residents of Development Area began here at Nepali Sahitya Parishad Bhawan today.
The week-long programme from 30 May to 08 June organized by the NCD division under Health Care, Human Services and Family Welfare department was launched for Development Area by Gangtok, MLA, Dorjee Namgyal. Present for the launch function was Deputy Director, planning monitoring and evaluation (PME), C Khewa. The guests while speaking on the benefits and impact of the programme highlighted its importance and appealed to the general public to take the most out of this scheme.
It may be informed that for Development Area, everyday an estimated 200 persons, male and female are expected to be covered in the programme. Five doctors and fifteen nurses will be working here on all state government workdays.
Adarsh Samaj, a local NGO has been entrusted the responsibility to bring in 200 persons everyday from different parts of Development area in a phased manner so that the entire area can be covered without the Bhawan, where the screening is being conducted, going out of capacity.
During the period, laboratory investigations will be done that will include blood sugar tests for all pregnant ladies and people over 30 years of age. Other investigations being done on the spot are hemoglobin tests for persons over 12 years, cholesterol tests for 30 years and above, blood grouping (ABO&RH) grouping for all ages, and VIA for females above 30 years to detect early signs of cervix cancer, if any, along with urea and creatinine tests as per the need based on the other tests conducted.
As of now, a majority of the cases detected amongst women in the state have been of cervical cancer since this is a cancer that can be easily detected at the early stages at such temporary centers; amongst men, a majority of cases detected have been of diabetes, respiratory infections and cardio-vascular problems.
Further, the exercise of taking photos for health cards is also being done at the spot, the data from which is being stored for later when the same will be fed into the mother computer.