Odisha looks to be growing sick. Three years ago State’s nearly 68 per cent population were reported to be sick, the count grows big in 2015-16 to a whopping 73 per cent of the population.
While patients reporting at the Out Patient Department (OPD) grew to over 66 per cent of population in 2015-16 against 60 per cent in 2012-13, the count of patients admitted to Indoor Patient Department (IPD) contracted to around 7 per cent from 8 per cent in 2012-13.
The patient load at OPDs of State-run hospitals in 2015-16 was around 3 crore, when State population last year was projected at 4.2 crore by the Registrar General. The load at the IPD was at around 28 lakh last fiscal.
Nayagarh district was the sickest one in State with a high of over 93 per cent population having attended the OPDs of district hospitals last year.
However, the revelation is Sambalpur district borne the maximum patient load in the State last fiscal. While OPD load in Sambalpur was estimated at over 12.2 lakh, the population of the district was around 10.5 lakh only. This hints at heavy inflow of patient load from neighbouring districts. But Sambalpur district looks unhealthiest in the State with a higher fatality rate.
Sample this. When the State headquarters Khurda district recorded OPD attendance at 104 per cent of the population, the death count at IPD is estimated at mere 6 per 10,000 population against 4 deaths per 1,000 population in Sambalpur district. This reveals at prevalence of high death rate in the district.
Even, Odisha’s poorest district - Malkangiri - recorded around 2 deaths per 1,000 populations. Mayurbhanj and Nuapada districts were the other poor performing ones with over 1 death each per 1,000 populations last fiscal year.
When over 10, 583 males (including children) at IPD died, around 9,740 females (including children) died last year. This shows death rate among males is higher than females in the State. But death rate of females is highest in Malkangiri - where for every 10 male deaths, females death rate is 12. Angul, Boudh and Bhadrak recorded higher female than male deaths last year.
Puemonia and acute respiratory infections was the giant killer last year. Communicable diseases account for around 5 per cent of deaths last year. Chikungunya cases were up by 710 per cent in 2015.
When this World Health Day’s theme is ‘Beat Diabetes’, diabetes struck Odisha in a big way with cases growing by a whopping 200 per cent to touch over 34, 800 from mere 17,000 in 2014-15. Odisha is 7th in diabetes incidence and the third fastest growing State nationally.
According to CAB - 2014 by Registrar General of India, Sambalpur has the maximum population affected by diabetes in Odisha. A whopping 7.5 per cent population in the district show a blood-sugar level above 130mg/dl, whereas around 4 per cent record a blood-sugar level of over 150mg/dl. However, Khordha has the maximum rural populace affected by diabetes in State followed by Sambalpur and Kandhamal. Almost 12 per cent of populace in Cuttack have blood-sugar level above 110mg/dl.