Hub to hut: Pink Bus takes cancer screening to villages

Project conducted by SVIMS with support from Rotary Club

Legislator Bhumana Karunakar Reddy and SVIMS Director T.S. Ravikumar examining participants near the Pink Bus at Rajiv Gandhi Colony in Tirupati on Wednesday.

The prestigious ‘Pink Bus’ project of the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) is organising free cancer screening camps in villages under a ‘Hub to Hut’ programme.

After conducting screening programmes in villages around Tirupati in the past, the bus reached Jeevakona on the outskirts, falling under the city constituency, for a mega medical camp on Wednesday.

Fighting stigma

“Pre-emptive screening assumes importance as cancer is detected at an advanced stage. Moreover, patients are reluctant to go to a hospital for cancer screening for various reasons, including a lot of stigma attached to the disease. Hence, SVIMS, with the support of Rotary Club of Tirupati, decided to take the screening process to the community in the Rayalaseema districts,” said SVIMS Vice-Chancellor and Director T.S. Ravikumar.

“As the hospital machinery goes to the countryside, it also doubles as an initiative to create public awareness on non-communicable diseases and also prepare a health database of the region,” Dr. Ravikumar told

The Hindu .

Support for poor

“A society’s living standards depend largely on the health of its women. So, it is pertinent that they are hale and healthy,” said local legislator Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, who inaugurated the camp along with Dr. Ravikumar. He assured all support to the poor on behalf of the State government and SVIMS.

Survey conducted

Of the 103 women who attended the camp, 38 took mammograms, 70 took a Pap smear test while six persons underwent an ultrasound test. Students of Sri Padmavathi Medical College for Women conducted a house health survey in 160 houses in the locality.