KIMS-ICMR team, working in Koraput district on “Tribal TB Elimination Project” and in both Koarput and Boudh for “An Intervention Study to Increase Male Participation in Family Planning Programme” under Prof. Dr. Sonali Kar, Dept. of Community Medicine, KIMS as the Principal Investigator, have made notable headways. While the “Tribal TB’’ project was initiated in February 2023, the contraception project got started way back in February, 2021.
Tribal TB Elimination Project:
“Tribal TB Elimination Project’’ is under the aegis of MoHFW, CTD, and ICMR and has had neck-to-neck activities on field. As per the project mandate, to begin with, a camp approach was adapted for intensive case finding and it was started in Borigumma block. However, now with the changed strategy of household visits and spot sputum collection, it is now being followed simultaneously in three blocks i.e. Borigumma, Jeypore and Kunduli.
The team was subdivided into three with some fresh hiring. Proactive procurement of INH prophylaxis for household contacts has been done and initiated in the blocks as well as therapeutic feeds given to cases with BMI in the undernourished range. Molecular diagnostics and CXR of sputum-negative TB cases are being done, minimizing delays and weekly updates being submitted to the sponsors.
To initiate these extensive and exhaustive changes, the State Headquarters team comprising of Dr. Sonali Kar (PI), Dr. Smita Panda (Co-PI, Professor, Community Medicine, VSS Burla), and Dr. S Haldar (Co-PI, Associate Professor, SLN Koraput) met CDMO, Koraput Dr. Arun Padhy and DTO Koraput Dr. Samal and thanked them for their support.
The team monitored extensively both TB as well as contraceptive activities and ensured that all project tasks were being done satisfactorily. This changed strategy is also being meticulously followed by a team of consultants at KIMS on a daily basis i.e. Lopa, Padmini, Pooja and Pravasini headed by Dr. Nirmalya Mohapatra, first year tutor and Dr. Liwa Patnaik second year tutor, remotely or by use of GPS location mapping. The whole district is now positively apprised and aligned towards the goal of TB elimination and cooperating with the team.
Contraception Project:
Dr. Asutosh Pradhan and Dr. Surya Routray, PG Tutors of second year attended the Female and Male sterilization camps at CHC Purunakatak and DHH Boudh respectively on July 11 and 12 and at SLN Medical College, Koraput on July 14. The second phase intervention under the Contraceptive Project has been diligently generating awareness with an effort to make qualitative family planning choices and also ensure proactive counseling by the frontline health workers among the eligible couples in sampled villages.
At the end of second quarter of the intervention phase, sterilization camp was organised as the first ever quality camp under ICMR project because of the consistent efforts made by the team, comprising of post-graduates from Community Medicine, Advisor Prof. Dr. Samantaray (Co-PI), a dedicated team for Boudh having Consultant (Bishnu Dash) and supervisors (Susanta Bhoi and Ajaya Pradhan) and a dedicated team for Koraput having Consultant (Suvam Swain) and supervisors (Arabinda Sarangi and Rajesh Patra) working at the field lead by the PI. The team managed to mobilize maximum number of participants, both males and females for the camp.
Koraput:
Eight male sterilization was achieved in the intervention villages of Koraput, at SLN MCH, Koraput out of the 24 participants who turned up for the camp. The programme ended by felicitating the Dr. Nila Madhab Satapathy (Operating Surgeon), PHEO Nandapur and health workers involved in NSV. Dr Surya, from KIMS oversaw the monitoring activity to everyone’s satisfaction and gave away a token of appreciation to the Operating surgeon (Dr. Nilamadhab Sathapathy, ADMO Family Welfare) and Dr. Arun Padhy, Chief District Medical and Public Health Officer of Koraput.
Boudh:
Dr. Asutosh Pradhan, second year PG from Dept. of Community Medicine, Bishnu Dash along with field supervisors gave away a token of appreciation to each of the operating surgeons (Dr. Sudarshan Meher, Dr. Kishore Pattnaik and Dr. Shantanu Mishra) and Medical Officer In-charge (Dr. Chinmaya Mishra) of CHC Purunakatak, Boudh. For this camp too impressive turnover of 34 acceptors was seen.
In both districts an atmosphere of respectful contraception services was created, where every acceptor’s rights and privacy were honoured and due information was given to them about the surgery, its expected short-term benefits as well as the long-term goals in nation building and development.
The team’s efforts and idea were lauded by the District/Block officials for their persistent support and determination against all odds. The Boudh team were also invited to attend the Population Fortnight programme organised at CHC Purunakatak observed on July 11 as a part of World Population Day. Dr Angana Ray, first year tutor is compiling the data and is presenting it in a national conference on behalf the team.
KIMS team also expressed its hearty gratitude to Director of Family Welfare (Dr. Bijay Panigrahi) and State MCH Consultant Saroj Panigrahi for sustained encouragement. It also expressed its heartfelt gratitude to HoD Prof. Dr. Basant Kumar Behera for his unconditional support and also to the Founder of KIIT-KISS Dr. Achyuta Samanta for providing the moral impetus that showed the way to the team for all good works against the odds.