Odisha Govt To Launch ‘Amlan’ To Tackle Anaemia Among Children & Women; Know Strategy & Target Groups

Bhubaneswar: With population of anaemic persons, particularly children and women, rising sharply in Odisha despite food supplement programmes, the state government is set to launch a scheme to monitor and manage anaemia next month.

As per findings of the National Family Health Survey 5 (NFHS 5) for 2020-21, released recently, there was an increase of 64.2% anaemic children compared to 44.6 pc in NFHS-4 conducted in 2015-2016. Around 64.3% pregnant women in the age group of 15-49 years were found anaemic against 51% pc during the last survey. Among non-pregnant women of 15 and 19, it is up from 51% in 2015-2016 to 65.5% in 2020-2021.

Considering the rise in anaemic children and women, the government has drawn up ‘Anaemia Mukta Lakshya Abhiyan’ (Amlan) that combines national and global best practices in the management of anaemia. It is likely to be launched on mission mode in July. Under the scheme, the government has prepared a strategy to monitor the nutrition intake and other health supplements and testing and treatment of anaemic persons besides regulating their improvement.

A population-based intervention such as micronutrient supplementation, parasitic disease control, family planning and safe motherhood has been prepared for a reduction in anaemic cases, TNIE quoted Director, Family Welfare, Dr Bijay Panigrahi as saying.

The government would carry out activities including strengthening the prophylaxis approach, testing, treating and talking (T3), addressing non-nutritional causes of anaemia, awareness, dietary diversity and year-round social behaviour change communication involving six departments across the state.

The targeted population has been divided into six groups. Those are children aged six months to 59 months, five years to nine years, 10 years to 19 years, women at reproductive age, and pregnant and lactating women. They will be tested for haemoglobin at schools and village health nutrition day (VHND) and T3 camps under Amlan.

The beneficiaries will be tested whether they are mild, moderate and severe. They will be treated for 2-3 months and tested again to know improvement. They will be put under a prophylaxis approach, if their condition improves and referred to the hospital for better treatment, if no improvement is noticed.

“The State has 1.37 crore people under the six groups. We have planned to conduct the quarterly T3 camps in every district to identify the anaemic cases. The guidelines have been prepared and will be released after incorporating the inputs from stakeholders,” Panigrahi said.