Vice President Venkaiah Naidu for national movement against non-communicable diseases

Hyderabad: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said India was now witnessing a troubling epidemiological transition from Communicable Diseases to Non-Communicable, lifestyle diseases (NCDs) and stressed the need to establish NCD clinics both in urban and rural areas.

Addressing a Global Health Summit, organised by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) here, Venkaiah Naidu said a national movement against the growing incidence of non-communicable diseases needs to be launched.

The Vice-President, quoting the ICMR India State-Level Disease Burden Study report-"India: Health of the Nation's States," said the estimated proportion of all deaths due to NCDs has increased from 37.09 per cent in 1990 to 61.8 per cent in 2016.

"I feel that there is a need to establish NCD clinics both in urban and rural areas and the private sector must play a prominent role in setting up such clinics," he was quoted as saying in a press release.

He urged organisations like AAPI to collaborate with the government and private sector in India in conducting massive screening programmes and awareness campaigns, in their crusade against non-communicable diseases.

He further said it was not only the responsibility of doctors, as a society everyone had the responsibility to take part in spreading awareness about healthy lifestyle.

The Indian Medical Association must take the lead to promote awareness among people, particularly school and college students, on the health hazards caused by sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy dietary habits, he said.

"If the country is to prosper and realise its true potential, it is of paramount importance that we ensure health security to all. Only a healthy nation can be a progressive and wealthy nation," Venkaiah Naidu observed.

India has achieved significant progress since independence on various health indicators, however, the country's health sector still grapples with inadequate public spend, low doctor-patient ratio, high share of out-of-pocket expenditure, inadequate infrastructure in rural areas, lack of penetration of health insurance and inadequate preventive mechanisms, the Vice-President pointed out.

"We face a huge shortage in the number of qualified medical practitioners in India, especially specialist doctors. It is crucial that we address this huge gap in the supply of trained healthcare practitioners by opening more medical colleges and increasing the number of seats at both graduate and post-graduate levels," he said.

Urging the doctors of Indian diaspora to adopt their own villages and help improve the Primary Health Services there, the Vice-President said there was also a need to expand the telemedicine cover to other rural areas and inaccessible terrains in the country.