more-in The overall maternal mortality rate (MMR) has come down from 92 to 74 per 1 lakh live births in the State and in Visakhapatnam district, it has come down from 140 to 89. “This is a good achievement and we intend to highlight such things in the AP Health Fest that will be inaugurated by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday,” said Poonam Malakondaiah, Principal Secretary (Health). Addressing the media here on Wednesday, she pointed out that this was for the first time a health festival is being held in the State and the core theme is to exchange ideas and innovation. “We will have participation from all the 13 districts and from other States such as West Bengal, Karnataka, Odisha and Kerala, and the festival will be used as a platform to deliberate on best practices..We intend to showcase our programmes such as ‘Talli Bidda’, NTR Vaidya Seva, Aarogyasri and motorbike ambulance in tribal areas,” she said Tthe turnout for NTR Vaidya Seva has increased from 17% in 2014-15 to 27% in 2018. “Because of this, the out-of-pocket expenditure for the common man dropped from ?5,000 in December 2015 to ?1,600 in August 2017,” said Ms. Poonam Malakondaiah. Hackathon Apart from health officials from various districts and other states, officials from NITI Aayog, WHO, World Bank, UNDP and UNICEF will be attending. Dr. Jitendar Sharma, CEO of AP Med Tech Zone and consultant to Government of AP, the health fest was preceded by three-day hackathon and datathon that began on June 18. In the hackathon, new trends and technologies in the medical field was discussed and in the datathon, innovative ideas were taken up, he said. According to him AP Med Tech Zone will be the first such medical equipment manufacturing park, where machines pertaining to CT scan, cath lab and dialysis will be manufactured for the first time in India. “This also will be showcased in the health fest,” said Dr. Jitendar. The crux of the idea for holding such a fest is to reduce the health cost for common man, said Ms. Malakondaiah. District Collector Pravin Kumar was present.

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