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Health awareness programs in community cannot be ignored

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The best way to reduce spread of disease can be through mass awareness

Mudasir Ali

Awareness always plays an important role in our life and keeps us up to date in daily routines. It acts as a main pillar in procuring specific information of all kind of events and tragedies which are happening across the globe.

Health awareness can in no way be ignored or compromised but to streamline its service in a community or village to ensure better and equipped health tasks designated to realizing the health issues and health education.

Health sectors carry state’s half burden on its shoulders by minimizing the death rates and increasing birth rates. States can run progressively in all walks when they have better health infrastructure and adept medical professionals who are considered one of the main parts of the health system working tirelessly by giving their services in normal and abnormal days.

To facilitate its efficient role for promoting healthier community with high life expectancy rate and surviving potential with the health awareness would be realizing one of the measure steps in the health sector.

There is a division of labor in health sector from top to bottom. In fact, a state has big hospitals at headquarter level and in district levels under particular jurisdictions which are undertaking the whole burden of health with utmost care and responsibilities.

We have small health centres in communities like PHCs, Sub Centres and Dispensaries as well which are being run for the people. Local people visit to such centres to take prescriptions from the medical professionals while having any kind of illness. However, these centres are not in a position to take large amount of pressure to deal with the patients as it depends upon the facilities available but to some extent they are doing their best for provide services on a small scale in the communities.

The health sector here has not taken any initiative yet for conducting health awareness programs at such centres. People in local community are not much aware of health diseases and their preventive measures. Heath awareness in no way to be ignored but it should be given the top priority in health domain.

Sometimes we see medical relief camps are held in our communities but they do not have any significant role related to health aspects. Awareness encompasses almost all phases of keeping good health which is the most important aspect to know about various diseases and precautions. This awareness may somehow alleviate the impact of a stressed community if awareness is provided in due time by our medical experts and health educators.

The higher officials of our health sector should mull and take a new initiative for conducting health awareness programs in the future time for making common people aware of infectious diseases like HIV, HEPATATIS-B, TB, asthma and non-infectious as well.

We see the horrifying situation in the world that has caused by covid-19 due to relentlessly spreading in almost all countries creating much chaos and fear among the people. It would be far effective and worthwhile to conduct health awareness programs in communities so that everyone should get familiar with the symptoms and preventive measures of both acute and chronic diseases.

The people living in rural areas are not much aware of health diseases and their precautions. They need to be educated well before any disease takes a vicious cycle in further involving many ailments. To ensure proper mechanism of awareness and health education among the people can have a great impact in protecting their lives.

To conduct Health Programs in the villages would be prove beneficial to make people more aware to get some basic knowledge for health related issues. This is the time that we should apply pragmatic approach rather than to have a well written health prescriptions for the patients in district hospitals.

By and large we all witnessed in rural areas that our health centers are lacking in basic health requirements. Health awareness programs are need of the hour at community level. It would likely have more influence wherein people can participate locally to know about diseases and remedial measures.

Health administration must take some key steps in organizing awareness programs in order to strengthening its role at community level. It is often said that prevention is better than cure but awareness is a tool whereby it would direct us from preventing diseases.

It would be a wonderful work if state’s health sector moves one step forward to draw a holistic sketch for the ‘community health awareness programs’. Nowadays we often come to see in hospitals, patients in long queues with pale faces waiting for hours under the blistering sun all day to get a turn for medical consultations. Majority of the health issues will be sorted out with ease by lessening some burden on the districts health care centres.

(The author holds a masters degree in science. He can be reached at [email protected])


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