Cross-Continental Move Afoot to Combat Killer Diseases in India

Fight against the Health Menace

• Health continues to pose a major challenge for India with a sudden outbreak of certain diseases
• Health Ministry’s new initiative aims to draw parallels between diseases, their cause in India and other parts of the world
• A team of 100 experts roped in to track health-related patterns
• An immediate benefit for India would be to fight against vector-borne diseases such as Japanese encephalitis
• Reports at the state-level will enhance level of understanding in terms of deployment of resources
  In recent times, India has witnessed an outbreak of a host of diseases, including a spike in cancer cases and other debilitating ailments across some states. This sudden challenge could be attributed to suspected water or air contamination, prevalence of high rates of mental ailments or depression. Besides, there has been high incidence of deaths due to road accidents in different parts of India.
  In a move which is perhaps one of its kind, all such events would now be mapped to draw parallels with similar instances in other parts of the world with a motive to find solutions to these health-related problems.
  As a part of the exercise a team of 100 experts, including a large number of practicing doctors, have been roped in to track and map various developments related to health. These experts will also analyse the risk factors for generating an estimate of state-level disease burden and other factors needed to improve the health programmes and planning in India.
  

  Finding Solutions

  Heisel said by eliminating polio, India has shown its ability and will to combat disease. “It now needs to tackle the high prevalence of heart attacks and strokes. Similarly, H1N1 or swine flu is another area where the country stands to gain and we are sure most of the tropical diseases can be controlled well.”
  When the programme was first launched in Switzerland and the United States in 1990, Heisel said one of the surprise areas where it helped was in dealing with mental and behavioural disorders. “Now the programme covers 188 countries and our endeavour would be to come up with a sub-national report on India in 2016 to help co-relate disease here and find solutions.”
  The state-level reports, he said, would also help the country deploy its resources more efficiently. “The participation of ICMR has also provided with a whole new level of depth.”

  Different Strategies for Different States

  The Global Burden of Disease study would help India deal with the burden of premature death and health loss due to non-infectious conditions such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, chronic obstructive lung disease, road traffic, lower respiratory infections, tuberculosis, diarrhoea and neonatal disorders. It would help policy makers understand the trends of disease and risk factor in order to plan further action.

  

  The health project for mapping diseases will also enable policy makers understand the trend of diseases and would thus help them plan accordingly. (Photo: iStock)

  On how the project would help, Soumya Swaminathan, Director-General of ICMR and Secretary, Health Research, at the Centre, said: “There is substantial variation across India in disease burden trends which needs to be systematically understood at sub-national levels. The need of the hour is to have a robust scientific approach to identify and estimate the significant contributors to ill-health across each state in order to plan a response specific to the local situation”
  Stating that air pollution and tobacco smoking continue to be major contributors to health loss, PHFI President Professor K Srinath Reddy said: “The efforts of the state-level Disease Burden Initiative would help refine the understanding of these variations across India, which would inform appropriate strategies for the different states of India.”
  (The writer is a Delhi-based freelance journalist)