The high incidence of breast infections among Adivasi women of Adilabad in Telangana has created apprehension of more serious health impacts for this remote population.
Health workers conducting a survey in 10 mandals in the district have so far identified over 10 per cent of the 6,000 respondents carrying different breast infections. “Leave alone breast cancer or any other type of carcinoma, even routine mammarian infections were unknown among indigenous people belonging to the Gond, Pardhan, Kolam and Thotti,” points out Dr. Thodsam Chandu, the District Immunisation Officer, himself a Gond.
The high incidence of infections of the breast certainly warrants a proper study into the phenomenon,” he says.
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The high incidence of breast infections among Adivasi women of Adilabad in Telangana has created apprehension of more serious health impacts for this remote population. Health workers conducting a survey in 10 mandals in the district have so far identified over 10 per cent of the 6,000 respondents carrying different breast infections.
”Leave alone breast cancer or any other type of carcinoma, even routine mammarian infections were unknown among indigenous people belonging to the Gond, Pardhan, Kolam and Thotti,” points out Dr. Thodsam Chandu, the District Immunisation Officer, himself a Gond. The high incidence of infections of the breast certainly warrants a proper study into the phenomenon,” he says.
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The Telangana Mahila Samatha Society (TMSS), an NGO based at Bellampalli town, is conducting the pilot project of the Breast Cancer Screening Programme in association with Ushalakshmi Breast Cancer Foundation, Hyderabad.
The study is being done in the mandals of Sirpur (U), Jainoor, Narnoor, Tiryani, Kerameri, Wankidi which have a sizeable population of aboriginal tribes and Bheemini, Nennel, Kotapalli and Asifabad, the last one having a good number of Adivasis.
“We have already found 700 women with abnormal breast conditions including infections though the survey is not yet complete,” reveals Vangapalli Suvarna, the district coordinator of TMSS. “All of them have been referred to primary health centres for treatment besides the few who have been treated at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Adilabad,” she adds of the work done by the NGO.
“No breast cancer has been found in the three patients we had referred to RIMS. We, however, strongly suspect that a Kolam tribal woman who had died two years ago at Dhanora-Kolamguda in Kerameri mandal had succumbed to breast cancer,” Mr. Suvarna states, as she drives home the point that there could be such cases among tribals.
“Much has changed in the tribal milieu over the years including their food habits. There is need for some operational research, perhaps with RIMS as a centre, into new diseases hitting the agency areas in recent times,” Dr. Chandu suggests.