Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) pose a major development challenge to developing countries like India, where the annual loss of household income due to them is estimated to be Rs.1 billion, Shanthi Mendis, Coordinator of the Cardiovascular Program for Prevention and Management of NCDs, World Health Organisation (WHO), Geneva, said on Sunday.
Delivering the Prof. M. Viswanathan Gold Medal Oration 2010 under the auspices of the M.V. Hospital for Diabetes, Dr. Mendis said India's GDP would have been 4-10 per cent higher if not for the catastrophic health expenditure, productivity erosion and impoverishment associated with the four leading NCDs —cardio-vascular disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory disease.
The WHO expert pointed out that NCDs constituted the single biggest cause of deaths, contributing to 60 per cent of all global deaths. Worse still, 90 per cent of premature deaths from NCDs were from low and middle income countries. WHO estimates that by 2015, the number of deaths from the four leading NCDs would increase by 21 per cent in the South Asian region, Dr. Mendis said.
Identifying tobacco, high salt-high-fat diet, physical inactivity and alcohol consumption as the four modifiable risk factors for NCDs, Dr. Mendis said the propagation of healthy lifestyles could not be seen as the task of the Health Ministry alone and ought to be taken up as the mandate of all sectors of government and civil society.
In spite of the well-documented challenge from NCDs to development, the global commitment to tackle the problem is wanting due to competing priorities —maternal and child health, water and sanitation needs —and the clout of tobacco and alcohol manufacturers.
In 2000, WHO framed a global response to NCDs that sought to integrate the prevention and control of these diseases in the development agenda of the countries. The United Nations General Assembly has convened a high-level meeting on NCDS at New York in September this year, Dr. Mendis said.
Delivering the second gold medal oration, Shiv Kumar Sarin, Chairman, Board of Governors, Medical Council of India, said transient elastography was emerging as a reliable imaging diagnostic to measure stiffness of liver in evaluation of fatty liver. The stiffer the liver, the faster the shear wave propagates across the site, he said.
Earlier, presenting the oration awards, Governor Surjit Singh Barnala called for a comprehensive diabetes care programme to lower the incidence of diabetes. Institutions such as M.V. Hospital and NGOs should evolve programmes from the regional to global levels for the control and prevention of diabetes.
Pointing to estimates that the diabetic population in India would increase to 85 million by 2030, the Governor said a burden of such magnitude would have enormous social and financial implication for the country as a whole.
Mr. Barnala also conferred the “Lifetime Achievement Award” on S.S. Badrinath, Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya in recognition of his pioneering work in ophthalmology.
In his acceptance speech, Dr. Badrinath said research undertaken by the Sankara Nethralaya had differentiated gene alleles that could aggravate and those that could inhibit a complication like diabetic retinopathy.
Vijay Viswanathan, Managing Director, M.V. Hospital for Diabetes, said the institution had been developing partnerships to implement the WHO's action plan for the prevention and control of NCDs.
