Hyderabad: The data shows that the disease burden in north Andhra is less compared to all other parts of the state. Kadapa, Krishna and East Godavari district have high prevalence of hypertension.
Cases of allergic rhinitis are high in dusty towns, like Guntur and Kadapa. Srikakulam has high incidence of osteoarthritis while West Godavari had the highest number of dog bite cases and Chittoor district in accidents.
Director of medical education Dr T. Venugopal Rao says, “Acute respiratory infections — both upper and lower — caused by various types of viruses, have symptoms of the common cold, cough and fever. The disease burden differs from one geographical area to another.
Lack of personal hygiene, such as regular hand washing, poor sanitation and overcrowding, result in the spread of respiratory infections. And fevers of unknown origin are a symptom; most of the data pertains to a provisional diagnosis. They are sent for lab tests and causes are identified later.”
According to the data, Kadapa, Chittoor, Kurnool, Krishna and East Godavari districts have the highest disease burden and recorded the maximum number of patients taking treatment in government-run health centres and hospitals. While Andhra Pradesh has started real-time data storage and analysis of patients and diseases Telangana state is yet to start the practice.
TS director of health and medical education Dr M. Ramani explained, “Data collection on various diseases in Telangana will take time as the software is yet to be installed in public health centres and also area hospitals. Proper training will have to be carried out after that.”
