Non-communicable diseases, which account for 41 million deaths globally every year, include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases.
New Delhi: Sixty-one per cent of all deaths in India every year are because of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), said a World Health Organisation (WHO) report released in Geneva Friday.
According to the report, 58.7 lakh people die due to NCDs in the country annually. Globally, NCDs are responsible for 41 million deaths per year, or 71 per cent of all deaths.
The NCDs include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, among others.
The primary challenges in overcoming NCDs are reducing premature deaths, alcohol and tobacco usage, physical inactivity and unhealthy diets, said the report.
“India has been facing a huge burden of NCDs and as documented in the last decade, the number of deaths due to NCDs like diabetes and mental health issues is on a rise,” Prashant Mathur, director, ICMR- National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research, Bengaluru, told ThePrint.
Mathur said air pollution is one of the causes for diseases like cancer. “Whether it is outdoor or indoor air pollution, it is responsible for the mortality rate going up. This pollution is also contaminating our soil and pesticides,” he added.
He said that India has taken many initiatives to overcome its health burden but needs to accelerate them. “In curbing tobacco, we have done considerably well but there are extended parts in India like northeast where it has gone up. It is high time we communicate at the highest levels. We need to converge and corroborate through conscious partnership between government, academia and society.”
He also said that NCDs should become a holistic part of the National Ayush Mission.
For India, the report recommended a national integrated NCD policy, strategy or action plan. It also proposed higher excise taxes on tobacco products and alcohol, advertising bans or comprehensive restrictions, reducing saturated fatty acids and trans fats from the diet along with the salt and sodium content.
For unhealthy diet reduction measures, it recommended restriction of marketing to children.
“The NCDs kill 15 million women and men between the ages of 30 and 70 each year. This burden is rising disproportionately among low-income and lower-middle-income countries, where almost half of premature NCD deaths occur. Within countries, these deaths disproportionally affect the poorest and those furthest behind. The NCD epidemic is driven by poverty, globalisation of marketing and trade of health-harming products, rapid urbanization, and population growth,” said the report.