The Hindu : Integrated disease surveillance launched

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Integrated disease surveillance launched

By Our Staff Reporter

MADURAI, FEB.21. A State-specific Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), funded by the World Bank, has been initiated in Tamil Nadu and seven other States by the Government of India.

It is a one-year grass roots programme in which a `functional surveillance' system would be in place for early detection of epidemics, sending early warning signals and facilitating effective intervention, according to K. Bose, dean in-charge, Government Rajaji Hospital.

The decentralised IDSP covers 11 diseases and will be implemented through the Madras, Madurai and Coimbatore Medical Colleges.

The core diseases of national importance and also State-specific diseases are to be covered in the surveillance programme, which will go on till December. Malaria, diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis, measles, poliomyelitis and respiratory distress will be put on strict surveillance. In Tamil Nadu, leprosy and leptospirosis will be additionally covered.

The formal `operations research' on the programme was launched in Madurai on Thursday, with the focus on disease detection, containment, prevention, trend monitoring and appropriate treatment.

"Hereafter, the stress is on high quality surveillance and also strengthening laboratory conditions," said Dr. Bose. Vital information collected from the patients and in hospitals would be shared at the national level.

In Madurai, the Director of the Institute of Microbiology, Madurai Medical College, will be the nodal officer of the operations research.

A consolidated core report would be submitted at the end of the study. The medical college hospitals in the State were chosen as they had facilities for confirming the disease, imparting training to para-medical staff and carrying out investigations.

"Early diagnosis and early treatment will be the trend now," Dr. Bose said. The programme assumed importance in the State as the current efforts at disease surveillance were largely disjointed. Use of information technology, strengthening laboratory facility and enhancing investigation were vital components of the IDSP.

In the three government hospitals, both outpatients and inpatients would be covered under operations research and symptom report prepared.

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