‘My Family, My Responsibility’ survey: 14% of those with cough, fever test positive for Covid-19

Under the door-to-door scheme ‘My Family, My Responsibility’, 14.2% people with influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) were found

Under the door-to-door scheme ‘My Family, My Responsibility’, 14.2% people with influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) were found infected with Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In addition, 23 lakh people across the state have been diagnosed with co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and cancer among others.

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Since the outbreak of the disease in March, doctors have observed that people with co-morbidities are most susceptible to Covid-19 which mostly affects lungs. These patients are at a higher risk of developing multi-organ failures, which increases the chances of mortality, said doctors. Taking this into account, the state government launched the survey on September 15 to create a health map of all districts.

As per the latest data, till October, 27,463,793 houses have been surveyed covering a population of 11.2 crore. In Mumbai, more than 1.5 crore people have been screened under the survey.

During the survey, health volunteers have found 357,173 patients with ILI and SARI. These individuals had symptoms similar to Covid-19 such as sneezing, cough, fever, among others. Of them, 322,466 were tested for Covid-19. Of those tested, 51,064 have been diagnosed with the infection with a positivity rate of 15.8%. This is lesser than the state’s cumulative positivity of 18.4% as of November 5.

“We have completed covering almost 99% of the households in the state. But as many people have gone back to their hometowns during the lockdown, we haven’t been able to include such migrated residents,” said Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer.

As many as 115,481 Covid-19 patients were found in home quarantine during the door-to-door survey while 239,473 recovered patients were checked and provided counselling.“This will help to create a health map at micro and macro level of health planning. Now, we know which areas have what kind of patients who can be the most susceptible to Covid-19. Then accordingly, we will design our health schemes and improve our infrastructure,” said Dr Awate.

More than one lakh volunteers are working with the state health department to screen individuals by checking temperature and oxygen saturation levels through an oximeter, followed by a set of questions on symptoms, international travel history or exposure to any infected patient, among others.

Hypertension is the most common co-morbidity

The survey has revealed that hypertension is the most common cause of co-morbidity. As many as 1,308,277 people were diagnosed with hypertension which refers to persistently elevated blood pressure in arteries. Following this, 8.6 lakh people were diagnosed with the diabetes that causes high blood sugar. Also, 73,055 individuals had heart diseases while 17,843 had cancer. Along with this, 106,877 had other ailments including tuberculosis, HIV, organ-related issues among others.

“Even after recovery, many are developing post-Covid illnesses. So, this health map will be helpful for the state government for further references,” said Dr Shashank Joshi, member of the state’s Covid-19 task force.