Maha: 49 medical colleges to adopt 50 villages each to raise awareness about breast cancer

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government have decided to set up a cancer outpatient department in every medical college of the state with an aim to ensure the proper diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer among women from rural areas.  

Each medical college would be adopting 50 villages so that the new initiative would reach the rural women of the area. The aim of the programme is to spread awareness about breast cancer and to reduce its diagnosis. 

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The government has selected 49 medical colleges to participate in the initiative. The special cancer outpatient department would conduct a breast cancer screening once a day every week. 

Each medical college is required to adopt 50 villages or screen around 20,000 women so that the initiative could reach every woman in the village. The aim is to create awareness about early detection of breast cancer and to ensure prompt treatment. Expert doctors associated with the medical colleges would be providing treatment to the women in the villages, revealed the information given by the Minister of Medical Education, Girish Mahajan. 

Under this programme, each medical college has been given a target to reach 20,000 women within two years by hosting around 21 camps every month. Around 840 women would be screened per month in these camps. The target of the scheme is to reach 10,080 women in one year and 20,160 women in two years, reports Punekarnews. 

For the screening, around 40 women between the age group of 30 to 65 would be screened, which would comprise 20 to 30 minutes of health education information, followed by 15 to 20 minutes of screening for women. The women would be given immediate treatment if the test result comes out positive. 

The 49 medical colleges of the state aim to screen 980,000 women in the age group of 30 to 64. After the first session of the screening which would last for two years, the women would have to undergo re-examination after two years. The scope of the procedure would be increased after two years, informed the Gynecologist Dr Tushar Palve. 

The Maharashtra government have launched the initiative to prevent and provide proper treatment for breast cancer in the state, with a specific focus on the rural areas. Early detection of breast cancer helps in saving a number of lives. 

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