50 cr Indians to be screened for diabetes, high blood pressure

To reduce the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the Union health ministry aims to have all Indians over the age of 30 screened for diabetes, high blood pressure and certain cancers.

The screening will be done under the national training for universal screening and control of five common non-communicable diseases — hypertension, diabetes and three common cancers of cervix, breast and oral cavity.

The programme was inaugurated by Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Wednesday.

In its first phase, the screening will be undertaken in 100 districts. Screening for common cancers of the cervix, breast and oral cavity will be included.

Upto 7 crore persons in India are suffering from diabetes, and another 7 to 8 crore persons from cardio-vascular diseases.

About 13 lakh patients are diagnosed with cancer every year. Upto 90 lakh persons die each year due to NCDs.

“These figures explain the magnitude of the issue in hand. All these ailments are lifestyle-generated, and can be prevented,” said Anupriya Patel , Minister of State (Health).

“Gradually, the programme will cover the entire country and around 50 crore people will be covered, so that timely intervention can reduce the disease burden in the country,” said Nadda.

Sixty per cent deaths in India occur due to NCDs, over-riding the number of deaths caused by infectious diseases in the recent past.

To tackle the disease burden, dedicated NCD clinics are operational in over 400 districts.

“We have adopted 10 National targets in our action plan to prevent and control NCDs. Twenty State Cancer Institutes (SCI) and 50 Tertiary Care Cancer Centres (TCCCs) are being set up for providing comprehensive cancer care. National Cancer Institute, Jhajjar (with bed capacity of 710) and a second campus of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, Kolkata are also being established,” Nadda said during the event.

The idea is to scale up screening to cover the entire population by 2018 under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS).

ALARMING DATA

• In 2013, diabetes and hypertension burden was pegged at 6.14 per cent and 5.12 per cent of the over five crore persons screened. It has increased to 10 per cent and 13 per cent respectively, of the two crore persons screened in 2016-17.