Home cancer screening for women

RI district 2982, under its Project  Malar, has provided three portable healthcare devices — equipment for ­screening ­cervical and breast ­cancer and hearing impairment in ­children — to a primary health centre in ­Shoolagiri near Hosur in Tamil Nadu, and trained the centre’s staff to use it. The project was soft-launched by RI President Jennifer Jones during her visit to Chennai. RCs ­Tirchengodu ­Redrock, Hosur Sipcot and Hosur Angels, along with ­Genworks Health, a ­Bengaluru-based ­healthcare solutions provider, coordinated the project which will benefit about one lakh women around Hosur district, says assistant governor Pratheep Krishnan. These machines will help the hospital staff examine women in the privacy of their homes. The Shoolagiri UPHC, with 10 doctors on its payroll, is the referral centre for the five ­neighbouring PHCs. Initially Rotary clubs will organise three awareness camps every month in the villages to familiarise people with the machines.

“Our goal is to provide these equipment to 50 more PHCs in the next two years,” he says. The district aims to cover six ­neighbouring ­villages in the first three months. The hearing ­impairment screening gadget will benefit 100 newborn babies a month.