Enhancing healthcare access and malaria management via mobile clinics and phone call services in Nuh district of Haryana, India.
Journal
Journal of vector borne diseases
ISSN: 0972-9062
Titre abrégé: J Vector Borne Dis
Pays: India
ID NLM: 101212761
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
21 Feb 2024
21 Feb 2024
Historique:
received:
05
10
2023
accepted:
15
02
2024
medline:
21
2
2024
pubmed:
21
2
2024
entrez:
21
2
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Malaria remains a complex challenge in India due to its diverse epidemiology, multi-ethnic population, and multiplicity of malaria vectors. While progress has been made in reducing malaria nationally, persistent pockets hinder elimination efforts. These challenges include hidden reservoirs, inadequate healthcare, suboptimal surveillance, non-compliance, and subclinical infections. Shortage of grassroot level and primary care health staff, transportation issues and general inaccessibility and unavailability of healthcare services are additional challenges. Mobile healthcare vans have been tried and found useful in enhancing healthcare availability in several health conditions in different settings. Nuh (Mewat) district in Haryana is a malaria endemic region; it is indeed one of the districts included by NITI Aayog in the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) a government initiative that focuses on rapidly transforming and developing the most underdeveloped districts in India. With an aim to improve the health care seeking behavior of malaria endemic community of selected villages of Nuh district, we carried out a study to using interventions in two villages of Nuh district like mobile malaria clinics and toll-free telephone services in enhancing healthcare access. We found that the Sangel village had higher literacy rates (60.6%) as compared to 39.4% in Naushera. Similarly, the unemployment rate was higher for Naushera. The mobile malaria clinic was deployed from December 2019 to July 2020 and a total of 269 phone calls were received from both the villages. A similar number of rapid tests and microscopy smears were examined and all were negative for malaria. The febrile patients were referred to the nearest healthcare facility. The study shows that the community is open to using these healthcare interventions and these initiatives of mobile malaria clinics and toll-free telephone services can bridge healthcare gaps, especially in malaria-endemic regions, aligning with India's malaria elimination and equitable healthcare access goals.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND OBJECTIVES
UNASSIGNED
Malaria remains a complex challenge in India due to its diverse epidemiology, multi-ethnic population, and multiplicity of malaria vectors. While progress has been made in reducing malaria nationally, persistent pockets hinder elimination efforts. These challenges include hidden reservoirs, inadequate healthcare, suboptimal surveillance, non-compliance, and subclinical infections. Shortage of grassroot level and primary care health staff, transportation issues and general inaccessibility and unavailability of healthcare services are additional challenges.
METHODS
METHODS
Mobile healthcare vans have been tried and found useful in enhancing healthcare availability in several health conditions in different settings. Nuh (Mewat) district in Haryana is a malaria endemic region; it is indeed one of the districts included by NITI Aayog in the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) a government initiative that focuses on rapidly transforming and developing the most underdeveloped districts in India. With an aim to improve the health care seeking behavior of malaria endemic community of selected villages of Nuh district, we carried out a study to using interventions in two villages of Nuh district like mobile malaria clinics and toll-free telephone services in enhancing healthcare access.
RESULTS
RESULTS
We found that the Sangel village had higher literacy rates (60.6%) as compared to 39.4% in Naushera. Similarly, the unemployment rate was higher for Naushera. The mobile malaria clinic was deployed from December 2019 to July 2020 and a total of 269 phone calls were received from both the villages. A similar number of rapid tests and microscopy smears were examined and all were negative for malaria. The febrile patients were referred to the nearest healthcare facility.
INTERPRETATION CONCLUSION
UNASSIGNED
The study shows that the community is open to using these healthcare interventions and these initiatives of mobile malaria clinics and toll-free telephone services can bridge healthcare gaps, especially in malaria-endemic regions, aligning with India's malaria elimination and equitable healthcare access goals.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38381048
doi: 10.4103/JVBD.JVBD_163_23
pii: 01196045-990000000-00044
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2024 Copyright: © 2024 Journal of Vector Borne Diseases.