Panaji: The directorate of health services (DHS) in collaboration with three centres have developed a mobile app for real-time testing and surveillance of malaria among migrant labourers.
Health services face challenges to check the spread of malaria among labourers as they are constantly on the move across the state.
“Contractors move labourers from south to north or vice-versa according to their projects. Some labourers visit their native place and return after a few days, but health workers are not informed about it,” Dr Kalpana Mahatme, health officer, in-charge of national vector borne disease control programme, Goa.
With labourers shifting their base often it beco-mes difficult to test them regularly which is where the mobile app will help to track labourers.
Mahatme said that the app will be introduced at centres in Margao, Panaji, Candolim and Cortalim. Contractors operating within the jurisdiction of the four centres will have to ensure that labourers under them have the app downloaded on their cellphones.
If a labourer does not test positive for malaria under the slide test, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test will help in correct diagnosis. The PCR test, she said, helps even if the candidate is asymptomatic. “But if both tests return negative, he will not need to be started on malaria treatment,” Mahatme added.
However, the patient will be put on treatment immediately if either of the tests is positive. The mobile app will also help track the labourer’s movement. Once the feasibility of the app is tested, it will be used at all other centres across the state, she added.
