WHO conference "Partners for Health in South-East Asia"

Sagar Media Inc:Press Release :16 March 2011, New Delhi
nt more affordable. “The sheer challenge of reducing mortality on account of Non Communicable Diseases and enhancing quality of life of our people makes this a risk worth taking’, he elaborated . The Minister informed that a revamped and synergised ‘National Program for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, CVD & Stroke’ is being implemented in 100 Districts across 21 States during the 11th Plan period. Eventually it will be extended over all the 640 districts in the country. For Diabetes, screening of over seventy million adult population (30 years & above) and pregnant women of all age group and children would be undertaken initially in six districts and eventually this scheme will also be extended to the entire country. This is perhaps the largest such exercise in the world, he noted. The Minister added that as policy makers we have to tackle these growing issues comprehensively and devise appropriate strategies. Shri Azad also stated that India has made impressive gains vis-a vis the Millennium Development Goals – VI. As against a projected figure of 5 million HIV/AID patients in the country, the current numbers are 2.3 million and these numbers have started showing a declining trend. We have also been able to avert more than 2 million deaths on account of TB with the scaling up of DOTS programme throughout the country. Against the MDG target of mortality reduction by 50% by 2015, we have already achieved a 68% reduction, he highlighted. Lancet has infact cited Janani Suraksha Yojana as a most promising public health initiative whereby the scheme has been able to reach out to approximately 10 million pregnant women providing safe motherhood. The Minister also called for inter sectoral coordination as he noted that health issues are now often being determined by non health indicators such as safe drinking water. The Minister also informed that nearly Rs 10,000 crores will be spent in the next 2-3 years to establish six state-of- art tertiary care institutions modelled on the lines of All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the under-developed and under-served regions of the country. Likewise, over 300 million US dollars are being invested in Government medical colleges for expanding medical seats and 250 million US dollars on establishing 250 nursing schools in the country in the same underserved areas so as to increase the overall availability of health personnel in these states. There is an urgent need for drawing up short term and long term plans to meet unmet requirement of health manpower at the grassroots level, he emphasized. It is for this reason that the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has taken several path-breaking initiatives not only towards augmenting the requirements of rural health manpower, but also towards ‘capacity building’ for health professionals in the country. As a consequence of these measures, “I expect that within a short span of time an additional 10000 seats in post graduate medical courses will be created in just three years time – something that has not happened since independence”, he said. The challenge however is now to ensure that the desired quality of teaching and training is not compromised with in any manner, he cautioned. The Minister also noted that we have to work in unison to aggressively produce good quality and low cost diagnostics, vaccines and drugs. “Good quality low cost generic medicines hold the key to improved health care”, he underscored. Shri Azad urged the Partners to commit ourselves to instituting a health care system which is equitable, affordable and accessible by all sections of the society. He asked WHO’s South East Asian Regional Office to follow up this conference by prescribing monitor able milestones to make the region free of want and disease.