CANCER AWARENESS: Punjab launches door to door campaign

Chandigarh, December 11, 2012: Madan Mohan Mittal, Health and Family Welfare Minister, Punjab while releasing the progress of the state wide door to door campaign for cancer awareness and symptom based on early detection of Cancer informed that more than 45% of the population has been covered during the first week of the campaign and 26, 40,777 houses have been visited by more than 40000, field workers as per the compiled data by evening of 10th December.

The Minister further expressed that the progress of the Campaign was as per schedule and was to his entire satisfaction. This Campaign not only first in India but all over the globe where each house was being visited for a single disease and is important for further planning and service to the community.

Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare, Government of Punjab, added that the field workers have been specially trained to introduce the hand out in simple language. The 12 symptoms that are the symptoms of chronic diseases and are also indicative of the suspicion of cancer are given in detail to each house hold and then the information given by the house hold is filled in the Performa. The field workers are to explain only the multicolour handout, which is also given to each house, and the symptoms given in which are expected to be understood by each individual so as to contact the health functionaries when such symptoms appear. There is no technical terminology in the hand out. No field worker is to either examine the patient or make any diagnosis or even suspect the cancer. They are only to fill in the information given by the house hold.

Mahajan further informed that this is an exercise to assess the number of cancer cases, or suspects of cancer or deaths due to cancer as per perception of the people whether literate or illiterate or whether a villager or a city dweller. The figures that have come out so far are encouraging. In the First Phase till date the data suggests that only 80,984 persons in a population of 1.33 crore feel that either they are suffering from cancer, or there has been a death in the family due to cancer in last 5 years or someone in the family is having some symptom that may occasionally come out to be cancer after medical examination and investigations and the same is only 0.6% of the population.