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Major initiative to control BP, diabetes
What has happened?
The Health Department of Kerala is launching a major initiative as part of a national programme for developing a registry for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) with focus on management of diabetes and hypertension
- The State government has now chosen to integrate this programme, announced by the Ministry of Health in 2017-18, with two other initiatives, one of which is the India Hypertension Management Initiative (IHMI), a national programme being implemented by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)and Vital Strategies
- Under the IHMI initiative, an expert committee has developed and revised hypertension and diabetes management protocols in such a way that henceforth the specified drugs in the protocol alone will be purchased and distributed by the State to PHCs. The aim is to make the treatment schedule more patient-friendly and to improve adherence
- The other is developing Quality Standards for the implementation of Standard Treatment Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of primary hypertension in Kerala, for which the State is partnering with the Imperial College, London, and World Health Organisation (WHO)
Initiative
- Everyone over 30 years in the designated area will be screened under each ASHA for diabetes and hypertension at primary health centres (PHC) through outreach camps and household surveys
- The screening at the Primary Health Centre level has already been initiated while field-level screening will be taken up soon
- Blood pressure and blood sugar levels will be routinely checked for anyone above 18 years coming to the sub-centres or clinics and protocol-based management will be initiated for those with diabetes or hypertension
- Targets
- The target Blood Pressure is below 140/90 mmHg for those below 80 years and below 150/90 mmHg for those above 80 years
- The target routine blood sugar (RBS) should be less than 140 mg/dl
- The patients will be followed-up for one year to ensure treatment adherence
- The separate module for the programme has been integrated into the e-health platform so that details of every patient is recorded, analysed and systematically followed up for an entire year to measure the impact of the protocol-based management of diabetes and hypertension
