Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Policy backing for health initiatives stressed

Thiruvananthapuram: Primary health care system should be re-oriented so that early

detection and care of chronic diseases in the community becomes part of routine health care delivery, K. Srinath Reddy, Professor of Cardiology, All India Institute for Medical Sciences has said. Mr. Reddy pointed out that unless public health measures and health policy interventions go hand in hand, the risk for chronic non-communicable diseases in the population cannot be brought down.

Dr. Reddy was speaking on ‘Response to the threat of chronic diseases in India,’ at the national conference on Emerging Issues in Public Health, here on Saturday. The conference is being organised by the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, the Public Health Studies wing of the Sree Chitra Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology.

The social gradient of chronic non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular diseases has reversed in India so that one can see a clear association now between low socio-economic status and the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. “The rich, who experiment with lifestyle changes move away from it swiftly when he accesses health information, while the poor who follows suit, cannot escape from the ill effects of the unhealthy lifestyle,” Dr. Reddy said. “The poor use vanaspathi which is cheap but has high concentration of saturated fats; they consume less of vegetables and fruits because these are expensive; they smoke beedis, which are under-taxed but much more dangerous than cigarettes. Unless health interventions are backed by policy decisions, the determinants of chronic diseases cannot be tackled,” he pointed out.

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