'Health walks in all the districts to promote overall fitness'

CHENNAI: Health secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi on Monday, said that Chief Minister M K Stalin is expected to inaugurate the Health Walks initiative in Tamil Nadu.

Health walks will be conducted in all the districts, he said, while inaugurating the Amputation Free Tamil Nadu initiative by a private hospital in the city on Monday.

He said that the department is working on the identification of the walking pathways of about 5- 8 km with an aim to increase the awareness towards overall fitness.

Health Walk is being planned to be organised on the first Sunday of every month by the state health department

Talking about the amputations due to diabetic foot, health secretary said that more than 1 crore people have been screened under the Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam scheme. While diabetes and hypertension form the majority of the identified cases under the scheme, most of the people do not seek medical care and treatment, while ultimately leads to diabetic foot and amputation.

Dr N Sekar, Chief Vascular Surgeon at Kauvery Hospital spoke about the need of awareness on vascular diseases and said that 85 percent of leg amputation is preceded by a leg ulcer and every diabetic patient gets the fear of amputation as soon as an ulcer develops in the foot.

"If the correct diagnosis is made at that time and proper treatment is given, amputation can be avoided. Moreover 30 percent of those who lose one leg develop similar disease in the other leg within one year. Hence, it is very important that every effort should be made to avoid amputation, " adds Dr N Sekar.

Kauvery Hospital is creating an awareness programme towards "Amputation Free Tamil Nadu" on account of World Vascular Surgery Day.