Battered by the Dana Majhi episode, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) deaths and the SUM Hospital inferno, the State Health Department’s image finally got a lift-up by the story of Jaga and Kalia (the conjoined twin from Kandhamal who were successfully operated upon at AIIMS, New Delhi in 2017 at the initiative of the department).
Moreover, the department at the end of the year could also look back with a sigh of relief as the intensity of major communicable diseases was kept under control in the State.
Be it vector-borne or water-borne disease, Odisha has recorded a dip in cases and fatalities owing to malaria, dengue, chikungunya, viral hepatitis, acute diarrheal disease (ADD), typhoid etc. There has been a steep fall in JE cases as the total cases fell to a 65 in 2017 from 242 in 2016 and nil fatality Vs 42 in 2016.
However, all was not rosy as a worrying stats for the department in 2017 was recording of the highest-ever 413 cases and 54 fatalities of swine flu.
Though Odisha still has the dubious distinction of having the largest malaria positive cases in the country in 2017, the total cases and fatalities have recorded a dip this year. Total malaria positive case fell to below 4 lakh from 4.4 lakh in 2016. Even a decline of over 11 per cent has been recorded in brain malaria cases in 2017. Malaria death toll too fell by nearly half from 69 in 2016. The percentage of brain malaria (P Falciparum) test positives to total blood smear examined also has declined to 5.1 per cent from 5.6 per cent in 2016. However, P Falciparum positives increased sharply in Kalahandi and Malkangiri in 2017.
Similarly, dengue cases in 2017 have nearly halved in 2017 from a whopping around 8,400 in 2016. Dengue fatalities also fell by nearly half in 2017. Moreover, compared to 51 chikungunya cases in 2016, the State recorded nil chikungunya in 2017.
Besides, fatalities due to ADD were nearly halved in 2017 and cases too have dropped.
But Odisha is still figuring among top ten States with maximum ADD cases. It had recorded 103 ADD deaths in 2016. Typhoid and enteric fever cases also posted a decline in 2017.
However, in infant deaths, the Health Department has reasons to worry as higher numbers of deaths were reported from districts like Bhadrak, Cuttack, Ganjam, Gajapati, Jharsuguda, Kendrapada, Khordha, Sambalpur, Nayagarh and Mayubhanj.
Districts like Nayagarh, Sambalpur, Kendrapada and Bhadrak have seen particularly sharp increases in infant mortalities.
But 2017 showed up the lingering deficit of doctors and other health professionals and health infrastructure in the State.
Though the CM distributed appointment letters to over 500 doctors in 2017, the vacancies are still at over 1,100. Similarly, beds in hospitals have become a scarcity with the year 2017 witnessing the problem going more acute.
Only 3 per cent PHCs have four beds whereas only 16 per cent CHCs have 30 beds.
Moreover, image of the department got a severe beating when in a short span of a month, cases of child delivery on roads across the State pointed to the acute deficits in the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY).