Free health check-up to cover 40 lakh people in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Over 41 lakh people in the city will be screened for leprosy, tuberculosis and non-communicable diseases, including some of the leading cancers, diabetes and hypertension, in a campaign starting September 23. More than 2,700 teams, comprising male and female community health volunteers, will visit homes to conduct the free checks that will also include waist size measurement to diagnose risk factors for obesity.


An initiative of the state government to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the door-to-door programme is aimed at detecting early symptoms and initiating treatment. It will be carried out across 22 wards (barring T and R Central) till October 9.

BMC officials have said a detailed questionnaire has been prepared for the health volunteers to record the population's existing health issues, new symptoms and findings. Cases in need of extensive diagnosis will be given referral chits which patients can use to get free treatment at civic hospitals.

Active surveillance programmes for TB and leprosy, where the health authorities detect cases within the community rather than wait for people to come to hospitals, have shown good results. For instance, out of the 474 new leprosy cases detected in 2018-19, 54 were detected during door-to-door surveillance.

"Numerous leprosy cases are hidden in the community and active case-finding campaigns can play a key role in detection," said Dr Raju Jotkar, in-charge of the city's leprosy control programme.

Though India technically eliminated leprosy in 2005 after its prevalence rate fell to less than 1/10,000 people, it continues to report over one lakh cases annually. Over 120 fresh cases were detected in the city between April and August this year; children accounted for one-fifth of the cases, indicating active transmission.