Health Policy Issues and Health Programmes in ... - Amazon S3

National Health Programmes: An OverviewThese teams have been provided training in surveillance, prevention and control of outbreaks. Itis proposed to extend the programme to 100 districts of all 35 states/UTs by 2002.11. National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB)In 1968, the National Trachoma Control Programme was launched, with priority for high endemicareas where prevalence was at least 50%. It was expanded and the NPCB was launched in 1976 as afully centrally-sponsored programme.A nation-wide survey in 1989 estimated that there were 12 million economically blind people inthe country.Activities under the NPCBl Creating infrastructure for cataract surgeries and support servicesl Providing school eye screening and refraction servicesl Strengthening eye health education through intensified IEC activitiesl Controlling corneal blindness, including the establishment of eye banks.The primary unit responsible for the service delivery at the periphery is the District BlindnessControl Society.Cataract operations have increased from 16 lakh in 1992/93 to 36.3 lakh in 2001/02. During2001/02, 58% of the surgeries were intra-ocular lens (IOL) implantation compared with lessthan 5% in 1994/95. A cataract surgery rate of 400 operations per lakh population is required toclear the backlog.Revised strategies on the basis of studies and surveys in 1998/99 and 1999/2000 includestrengthening services for other causes of blindness, such as corneal blindness, refractive errorsin school-going children, and glaucoma, to shift from the eye-camp approach to a fixed-surgicalapproach and from conventional surgery to IOL implantation.12. National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control (NIDDCP) ProgrammeOf 282 districts surveyed in 28 states and five UTs, 244 districts are endemic (the prevalence ofIodine deficiency disorders (IDDs) is more than 10%). It is also estimated that more than 71million persons are suffering from goitre and other IDDs. These disorders include abortion,stillbirth, mental retardation, deaf-mutism, squinting, goitre, and neuromotor defects.The National Goitre Control Programme was launched in 1962 and was renamed as the NIDDCPin 1992.Objectives of the NIDDCPl To undertake surveys to assess the magnitude of IDDsl To supply iodized salt in place of common saltl To conduct surveys to assess the impact of control measures every five years33