Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

City's urban poor not in good shape

R. Sujatha

Camp shows up poor health of slum residents

CHENNAI : A mega health camp held in the city on Sunday has brought into sharp focus the poor health of slum residents.

The camp, a preventive medicine initiative, found that most of them suffered from some ailment or the other. Respiratory disorders, tuberculosis, infection of the eye, stomach and skin are common.

Chennai Corporation conducted the health camp in all its 155 wards for the poor people living in the city. Mobile units of the Corporation were also employed in all the 10 zones to screen visitors to the city. At the five-hour camp, people were tested for hypertension, diabetes, respiratory problems, diabetes, skin infections and stomach disorders. About 14,000 people were referred to the various Government medical college hospitals in the city for further treatment.

Health authorities said that of the 61,000 people screened, at least 20 per cent were diagnosed with tuberculosis. Some 4,200 people had skin problems and nearly 9,000 people were found to be afflicted with other kinds of diseases, said Corporation Health officer P. Guhanandhan.

Adults aged above 40 were tested for diabetes. Of the 48,000 adults tested, 2,200 were diagnosed to be diabetic, while 2,500 people suffered from various kinds of stomach ailments. Another 1,200 were found to have abnormal blood pressure levels.

The health authorities had suspected chikungunya infection, but as many as 12,000 people reported with fever and body ache. About 14,000 people suffer from respiratory problems and about 6,000 suffer from eye infection. Some of the 750 people who suffer from cataract have been referred to the Government Ophthalmic hospital in Egmore for treatment. The various non-government organisations that run hospitals will treat others, Corporation health officials said. Senior officials of the Corporation and the area councillors attended the inauguration of the camp held in T. Nagar.

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