The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Call to formulate comprehensive non-communicable disease programme

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 31, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Call to formulate comprehensive non-communicable disease programme

Special Correspondent

Lifestyle problems, junk food, lack of exercise reasons for diabetes, says World Health Organisation official

CHENNAI: The Union Government must take the lead in formulating a comprehensive non-communicable disease programme, Cheiran Varghese of the World Health Organisation (WHO), India Office, said on Sunday. At the inauguration of the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF)-Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) Advanced Centre for Genomics of Type 2 Diabetes here, he identified lifestyle problems, junk food, lack of exercise and stress as the reasons for diabetes.

The food industry unleashed huge advertisement campaigns and "thrust junk food" upon children in the age group of 5-8. The marketing strategy outshone the awareness drives by the Government.

Multi-sector involvement

There was a need for multi-sector involvement.

Doctors and health educators called for a missionary zeal and a greater role by the Government to contain non-communicable diseases, pointing out that even in developed countries, 50 per cent of the diabetics did not know they had the disease.

ICMR Director-General N.K. Ganguly commended the pharmaceutical industry for having come out with more economical, injectible and oral drugs, as also gluco sensors. Stressing the need for genetic studies in the field, he said it was necessary not only to identify people who needed care but also to teach them how to manage their lifestyle.

Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathy said the State and Central Governments had been implementing health improvement programmes. The non-availability of exact data was the biggest problem.

Rural areas

He wanted technical people to spread out to rural areas, as the disease impacted families, communities and the State. V. Mohan of the MDRF said the centre would serve as a nodal agency for genomics of Type 2 diabetes research and train scientists in advanced research in genomics pertaining to diabetes.

Campaign posters and Epi-Nu, a nutritional epidemiology software, were released.

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