TN betters performance in reporting outbreaks under integrated programme
The number of units reporting increased from less than 10 per cent in 2021 to more than 90 per cent in 2023, an evaluation of the progress of the reporting process revealed.
CHENNAI: The State has recorded a significant rise in reporting under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme - Integrated Health Information Platform (IDSP-IHIP), scoring 10 per cent higher than the national average. There has been a rise in the number of units reporting, consistency, and quality of the reporting units.
The nationwide performance report under IDSP-IHIP from January to October 2023 revealed that Tamil Nadu had a score of 80.25, which is higher than the mean performance score of India, which was 70.24.
The number of units reporting increased from less than 10 per cent in 2021 to more than 90 per cent in 2023, an evaluation of the progress of the reporting process revealed. However, it highlights that the flagging of events, before it surfaces as an outbreak, and urban mapping is to be improved.
The IHIP-IDSP helps to identify the early warning signals of impending outbreaks of the reported diseases so that timely and effective responses can be initiated to combat the challenges regarding the public health issues in the country at the block, district, state and national levels effectively and promptly.
The warning about any health concern event can be flagged by anyone including healthcare workers from the government or private sector and is later analysed by the investigation team or Rapid Response Team, who decide if there has been an outbreak. The scoring was done for outbreak performance based on the number of events responded to on time, collection of data, sample collection, data analysis and declaration of results,
The reporting of outbreaks in Tamil Nadu increased from 85 in 2022 and 49 in 2021 to 91 in 2023. The State saw 91 outbreaks, with chicken pox witnessing the highest number of 15 outbreaks in the State, followed by 14 outbreaks of Acute Diarrhoeal Diseases.
Dr Palani Sampath, the key author of the study, stated that more emphasis should be given to improving the knowledge and awareness about the vital role of line listing to the healthcare workers to reduce the hidden burden on them during outbreaks by preventing them. Certain major corporations had problems in urban mapping which has been addressed to the surveillance units and is still in process which has further reduced the performance of a few districts.
