Hyderabad: Six to seven cases of high risk pregnancies suffering from malaria are noted in the Asara Tribal Health Programme every quarter as many pregnant women in the 181 habitats seek their help for institutional child birth.
The screening of these women has brought out the number of them suffering from malaria, Hepatitis B, HIV and also woman with stunted growth who would have problems during child birth. Stunted or short stature women are those with a height below 145 cm.
While the programme has covered 49,000 pregnant women and improved the percentage of institutional delivery from 18 per cent to 68 per cent in these habitats, challenges remain as the system of dia amma still exists.
These challenges at the ground level require community initiatives and young people from tribal areas are being recruited as volunteers and also trained as nurses.
The cases of malaria and Hepatitis B are tackled by treating pregnant women who come to the centre while HIV cases are reported to the state AIDS control centres.
The relapse of malaria is also noted but only if the woman returns to the centre. Since most of them are now seeking help, relapse of malaria is also being treated but the numbers are yet to be tabulated.
Vishal Phanse, chief executive officer of Piramal Swasthya, said, “We are working from 2011 to bring about a change by making them seek help for child birth. The major problem in remote hill areas has been of transportation. There are places where there is no road and the pregnant woman has to be brought down in a palki. Hence, simple means of transportation have been provided there to make it feasible for them to come to the nearest centre.”
There are anganwadis in habitats that are close to roads, but tribals living on the mountain tops of the Eastern Ghats will have to come down to access healthcare and the distance for some of them can be as much as 40 km.
