
CAN-STOP, Rotary District 3234, join hands to create awareness
The smell of petrichor lingered in the air, and vibrant placards bearing bold messages against tobacco use welcomed visitors. This scene was experienced at Anna Nagar Tower Park on Friday as health professionals, students, and activists came together with a single message: Say 'No' to tobacco.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) observes May 31 as World No-Tobacco Day, to commemorate this day CAN-STOP, a community-based organisation of Sundaram Medical Foundation Hospital, partnered with Rotary District 3234 to publicise the message. 'Tobacco usage has far-reaching consequences on our personal health and society,' mentioned Ravi Varma, a Rotary member.
Earlier, in May, CAN-STOP organised a series of activities aimed at raising awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco. Free medical camps were held offering oral and general screenings, specifically targeting slum areas, gypsy communities, and metro workers. A sticker campaign was organised in central areas to raise awareness among auto drivers about the dangers of tobacco.

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Time of India
6 hours ago
- Time of India
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Out of the 105 SCs assessed, nearly one-third (37/105; 35.2 per cent) reported stockouts of tablet metformin, and nearly less than half (47/105; 44.8 per cent) reported stockouts of tablet amlodipine," the study stated. The median duration of the stockouts for the medicines ranged from one to seven months. The SCs reported more stockouts of essential anti-diabetes and anti-hypertensive medicines compared to any other types of facilities. These medicines were better available at government medical colleges compared to any other levels of public health facilities. The medicine availability score at the primary health centres (PHCs) was just 66 per cent, far below the ideal threshold of 100 per cent. "Our findings suggest that among public health facilities, PHCs, district hospitals and government medical colleges in India are better prepared to manage services for diabetes and hypertension. Across all the facilities, the domain score for equipment was the highest, and for medicines, it was the lowest," the study said. It mentioned the ICMR-India Diabetes Study (ICMR-INDIAB) report's evidence of an NCD epidemic spreading to rural areas in India, in addition to the urban areas, due to changes in the lifestyle. Therefore, improving the preparedness of the SCs will further enhance the primary-care services closer to the homes of people, it stressed. The government has already accelerated its efforts towards strengthening Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) for achieving Universal Health Care by committing resources and efforts through its flagship Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs). These were recently renamed as Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. "During our assessment, the majority of PHCs (64 per cent) were converted to Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs). This indicates that PHC-HWCs were better prepared to provide comprehensive services compared to SCs, as nearly half of them (52.3 per cent) were transformed into HWCs. However, we found that diagnostic services were less available at district hospitals, indicating that secondary higher-level public health facilities were not fully prepared to manage complications of these two conditions," the study pointed out. Efforts to strengthen diagnostic services are essential for the continuum of care, as there will be in-referrals of patients from peripheral public health facilities to DHs, it said. Lessons from the India Hypertension Control Initiatives (IHCI) project can be adapted to ensure a reliable drug supply and accurate information systems in primary health care facilities, it added.


Hindustan Times
6 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
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News18
7 hours ago
- News18
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