Hyderabad: City Basti Dawakhanas brace for taming lifestyle diseases

Hyderabad: The State Public Health Department is all set to prevent various diseases by early detection and by providing treatment for the lifestyle diseases. Pre-screening for blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, thyroid and other diseases will be conducted at all Basti Dawakhanas in the city. The samples will be collected from patients visiting Basti Dawakhanas and will be sent to major State-run laboratory set up in Narayanguda.

According to the health department amid Covid-19 pandemic, lifestyle diseases are also on rise. As per the data present with the health department about 15 to 16 percent people in the city have diabetes and another 25 per cent people are suffering from high blood pressure. Officials said that people are getting affected with diabetes due to change in eating habits. Most of them are also getting infected with mouth cancer, throat cancer, head and neck cancer due to heavy consumption of tobacco products like gutka, pan masala and cigarettes. Around 35 percent of patients who come to government cancer hospitals are found affected with various types of cancers. Health experts say that early detection of cancer can control up to 30 percent of cancer affected people. Doctors say that "Most of them identified below 40 years of age and about 70 to 80 percent of patients are getting hospitalised and are on the third and fourth stage of cancers. High blood pressure has also become a serious health problem in the city as is slowly damaging other parts of the body. Many are being affected before they know about the disease and after half of their body parts are damaged."

According to Hyderabad District Medical Officer, lifestyle diseases can be prevented on early detection and Basti Dawakhanas are collecting samples in this regard.

There are more than 250 Basti Dawakhanas across the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits, of these 152 are well equipped and fully functional in the city. These Dawakhanas are affiliated to the NIMS (Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences), Gandhi and Osmania General Hospital.

Moreover, these Dawakhanas are also offering Telemedicine services to the patients. Current services also include gynaecology, nephrology, orthopedics and general medicines. The doctors at Basti Dawakhanas also have smart tablets in which they are maintaining the health records of patients. They collect the samples for conducting tests like blood and urine. Later the reports are also shared with the concerned doctors available at the State-run hospitals and refer the patients if they need further monitoring, treatment and surgeries.