A Demographic Development and Environmental Surveillance Site (DDESS) at the Rural Health Centre (RHC) at Simhachalam was inaugurated by Dr. P.V. Sudhakar, Principal, Andhra Medical College (AMC) here on Wednesday.
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Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Sudhakar said that this was a prestigious project of AMC that has been shortlisted from 17 institutions all over India.
Dr. B. Devi Madhavi, Principal Investigator of the project, said DDESS gathers longitudinal health and demographic data for a dynamic cohort of the total population in a specified geographic area. A DDESS was created by first executing a census of households in the area as a baseline, followed by regular visits to each household to gather health and demographic data.
The project intends to collect the demographic and environmental data of six sub-centres of Simhachalam at Adivivaram I, Adivivaram II, Indranagar, Laxmi Nagar, Peddagadili I and Peddagadili II. Population data pertaining to 2,000 residents would be collected in the first six months, in the first phase, followed by collection of population data of 50,000 residents, which would be complemented by GIS technology for added precision.
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Subsequently, the seroprevalence of dengue and chikungunya would be studied. The period of the project was three years. The project is supported by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council under the National Biopharma Mission of the Department of Biotechnology.
Dr. S. Sunitha, Associate Professor (co-investigator), Dr. K.K.L. Prasad, Assistant Professor (co-investigator), Dr. Venkata Ramana (co-investigator), Dr. A. Vasudev (in-charge Deputy Civil Surgeon), M. Jagannath, Project Manager, staff, faculty and post-graduates of Community Medicine Department and staff of RHC, Simhachalam, attended the programme.