Tripura, Feb 6: The Tripura government will soon operationalise eight cancer screening centres across the state for early detection of the disease, an official said.
Six such units will be set up at medical facilities in Agartala, Dharmanagar, Dhalai, Udaipur, Kumarghat and Jolaibari, and location for two more cancer centres in Tripura has not been finalised as of now, he said.
An expert team has been formed to oversee operations of these proposed facilities.
Another team of health professionals was constituted to conduct a household survey across all the eight districts of the state to collect data of high-risk persons, he said.
The government has installed a PET-CT scan machine at Atal Behari Vajpayee Regional Cancer Centre here at a cost of Rs 15 crore, and 16 patients have already been examined using the instrument, the official said.
The government has also appointed two surgeons – Dr Asish Kumar Gupta from Delhi and Dr Preetesh Rajib Singh from Mumbai – at the medical facility.
Tripura now has 60-70 cancer patients for every 1 lakh people as against the national average of 100, he added.
