'Efforts on to reduce cancer, diabetic cases'

New Delhi: It seems there is an urgent need to propagate the Fit India campaign as people in the country are falling prey to life-style based fatal diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

According to government reports, the number of people with diabetes in the country is close to hitting the alarming mark of 69.9 million by 2025, which denotes that the country is expected to witness an increase of 266 per cent in next couple of years.

Cancer cases have also increased manifold in recent years as the country has witnessed 15.86 lakh cancer cases in 2018. In reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that cancer is diagnosed and treated at various levels in the health care system and the treatment of cancer is by surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and palliative care.

"As per the National Cancer Registry Programme of Indian Council of Medical Research, the estimated incidence of cancer cases in 2018 was 15,86,571," he said during Question Hour.

He added that the government is implementing the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) under the National Health Mission (NHM) and 599 non-communicable diseases clinics at the district level and 3,274 NCD clinics at the community health centre level have been set up under the programme.

In case of diabetic diseases, the government is banking on Ayurvedic medicines as a preventive and curative care mechanism. In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, MoS (I/C) AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik said, "The CSIR-developed BGR-34 drug, which is manufactured by AIMIL Pharma, has shown therapeutic efficacy for treating newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. The efficacy of the BGR-34 has also been found suitable for treating diabetic patients in independent clinical trials conducted at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi."