DEIC sees rise in children suffering from anaemia

Sumeer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 19

Owing to rising awareness and screening of children affected by anaemia at government schools in the district, the number of patients at District Early Intervention Centre (DEIC) has increased manifold in the past two years.

Unaware of its deleterious health effects on the functioning of heart and lungs, the parents of five-year-old Anika (name changed) kept stalling their visit to a doctor until she fainted and became unconscious on a number of occasions.

After taking medicine from a private clinic for six months, Anika was screened positive for anemia at her school last year in May. Now, she is undergoing free treatment, including blood transfusion, under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) scheme at the DEIC here. There are five such centres in the state.

Like Anika, as many as 98 other children affected by anaemia had availed free treatment under the scheme in the past one year (March 2017 to March 2018). In 2016, around 20 children had undergone treatment at the centre since its inception in July.

Prabhsimran Kaur, Medical Officer at the DEIC, said, “The detection of anaemia among the affected children is a Herculean task as its symptoms (shortness of breath or fatigue) are often discarded as routine problems, especially by parents hailing from rural areas. And over a period of time, severity of the anaemia increases. Lack of a proper diet is the primary cause behind the disease.”

She said, “After diagnosis, we at the centre provide free medicines to the patient and administer blood transfusion whose hemoglobin content is below 4 gm per deciliter. We also recommend parents to ensure that their children take a healthy diet with main focus on iron-rich food as it is the key constituent for hemoglobin.”

Manphool Singh, district co-coordinator, RBSK, said, “When the centre started giving treatment to anemic children in 2016, there was less awareness about the scheme. But our dedicated mobile health teams, including medical officers, pharmacists and staff nurses, intensified awareness drives and screenings at government schools and anganwadi centres throughout the year to identify the children who are suffering from anemia.”

Under the scheme, around 1.20 lakh students from 691 government schools and 60,000 children from 1,385 anganwadi centres are screened annually in the district.

Students screened annually at schools

Under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, around 1.20 lakh students from 691 government schools and 60,000 from 1,385 anganwadi centres are screened annually in the district.