India's Disease Burden: Who Perspective

9/24/2009

Semester III

Kandarp N Talati

MBA – Healthcare Management

“Awareness is the first step towards concrete change.” This quote is the guiding philosophy and motivation behind this assignment. Friends as we all know; we won’t act unless we are aware of the facts. And the other way round we can also say, “Learning Facts helps to Act”. So this assignment essentially contains some eye-opening facts and statistics about the communicable and non-communicable diseases to sensitize our understanding that might aware us of the seriousness of the re-emergence of infectious diseases

PAPER -I and increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases as a result of lifestyle changes and urbanization. I hope these facts would direct our thought process and actions to bring about necessary changes in our routine diet and life-style pattern at least on individual basis. According to the estimates in ‘The world health report 2004’, there were 57 million deaths in the world in 2002. The broad category of all "non-communicable diseases" killed 33.5 million people (59%); communicable diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions, and nutritional conditions killed 18.3 million people worldwide (32%); and external causes of injuries killed 5.2 million people (9%).

&following NON-are COMMUNICABLE DISEASES When analyzingCOMMUNICABLE at disaggregated level, the the leading causes of death: CIA No.

Cause

Estimated number of deaths (in millions)

1

Ischaemic heart disease (NCD)

7.2

2

Cerebrovascular disease (NCD)

5.5

3

HIV/AIDS

2.8

4

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ICRI - (NCD) Ahmedabad

2.7

5

Diarrhoeal diseases

1.8

6

Tuberculosis

1.6

7

Malaria

1.3

8

Diabetes mellitus (NCD)

1 Source: The world health report 2004 (NCD: Non-Communicable Disease)

From the above statistics it is clear that NCDs are major causes of death and disability worldwide and the below mention chart deliberately suggests INDIA is no exception. In India, chronic diseases were projected to account for 53% of all deaths.

Moreover, WHO projects that over the next 10 years in India: ✔ Over 60 million people will die from a chronic disease. ✔ Deaths from infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions, and nutritional deficiencies combined will decrease by 15%. ✔ Deaths from chronic diseases will increase by 18% - most markedly, deaths from diabetes will increase by 35% ✔ An additional 2% annual reduction in national-level chronic disease death rates would result in an economic gain of 15 billion dollars for the country. WHO also suggests that at least 80% of premature heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, and 40% of cancer could be prevented through healthy diet, regular physical activity and avoidance of tobacco products. Impact on Economy: There is no need to mention that premature death would definitely result in loss of potentially productive years of life and this has direct bearing on nation’s productivity and thereby on economy. Moreover NCDs create large adverse – and underappreciated – economic effects on families, communities and so on the country. In 2005 alone, it is estimated that India will lose 9 billion dollars in national income from premature deaths due to heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Cumulatively, India stands to lose 237 billion dollars over the next 10 years from premature deaths due to heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Challenges in Indian Context: In Indian context, along with the growing prevalence of NCDs, resurfacing of communicable diseases like malaria, dengue fever and poliomyelitis poses dual burden of diseases to the nation. In addition to the dual burden of communicable diseases and NCDs, there are other serious lacunae in the health system, which need to be corrected if the targets set by National Health

Policy are to be achieved. The public health care system today, lacks the necessary political will evident through India’s position among lowest public health spending countries in the world. Moreover, there is a significant deficit in manpower and infrastructure available in the country coupled with inadequacy of financial resources. The deficit for the major items include Community Health Centres (56%), Primary Health Centres (15%), Doctors (31%) etc. Even where public health services exist, the quality of services is extremely poor. To cope up with existing challenges and strengthen the primary health services the need of the hour is to provide quality health care at all levels by using methods which are affordable, acceptable and accessible to all along with increasing community awareness to support national or local health programs through information, education and communication. We can do so by putting our existing resources to optimal use and by exploiting the feasibility of Public Private Partnerships towards healthy INDIA.