PMO meet to review policy on non-communicable diseases

March 14, 2011

Kounteya Sinha, TNN | Mar 14, 2011

NEW DELHI: India's tremendous burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like

stroke, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases have now reached Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh's doorstep.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has called a meeting of the health ministry

and the Planning Commission on Monday to review policies on NCDs and thrash out

what needs to be done to lower the country's NCD prevalence.

Health secretary K Chandramouli will attend the meeting on behalf of the health

ministry.

After the United Nations summit on HIV in 2001, that made the entire world come

together to fight the deadly AIDS causing virus, this September,

non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are all set to receive a similar push in New

York.

To be attended by the who's who, including Singh, the UN General Assembly on the

Prevention and Control of NCDs on September 19 will decide how to better

prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory

disease and diabetes, which together are responsible for eight million deaths

worldwide, annually.

Prior to this UN meeting, the first global ministerial conference on NCDs is

being held in Moscow on April 28 which will be attended by health minister

Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The conference will highlight the magnitude and socio-economic impact of NCDs,

review international experience on NCD prevention and control and provide

evidence on the pressing need to strengthen global and national initiatives to

prevent NCDs.

NCDs caused 54.66 lakh deaths in 2005 — 53% of the total deaths in India and is

now the country's main worry. The leading cause of deaths in India among NCDs is

due to cardiovascular disease (29.89 lakh), diabetes (1.75 lakh), cancer (5

lakh) and respiratory diseases (6.74 lakh).

According to WHO, cardiovascular diseases will be the largest cause of death and

disability in India by 2020. It is estimated that the overall prevalence of

diabetes, hypertension, Ischemic Heart Diseases (IHD) and stroke is 62.47,

159.46, 37.00 and 1.54 respectively per 1000 population of India. Additionally,

there are around 25 lakh cancer cases in India.

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