New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday hailed India for its initiative against hypertension and diabetes terming it as the largest expansion of care for non-communicable diseases the world has seen.
Praising India, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that earlier this year, India set a target to reach 75 million people with hypertension and diabetes on treatment by 2025.
“So far, nearly 11 million people are on treatment. More than 50 million with National Health ID cards linked to the NCD portal. 132 million people screened for hypertension, diabetes or cancer and 150 million people served through the e-Sanjeevani telemedicine platform, through 188K providers,” Tedros said.
He further said that 27 States and Union Territories have developed a treatment protocol for hypertension, and 17 have a treatment protocol for diabetes, based on HEARTS. HEARTS is a technical package of interventions initiated by WHO. It is worth mentioning that in May this year, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched an ambitious initiative of screening and placing 75 million people with hypertension or diabetes on Standard Care by 2025.
This announcement was made at a G20 co-branded event “Accelerating the Prevention and Management of Hypertension and Diabetes.” To accelerate the prevention and management of Hypertension, the Centre has urged States to adhere to all SOPs especially the screening SOPs correctly at the grassroots since screening is the bedrock of successful management of any disease.
The centre has also asked for private sector engagement in this effort and the contribution of the academic and research sector in creating models and different building blocks for achieving the ambitious targets. To achieve the goal, the centre has also streamlined three layers of health care services including district hospital and community health centre, health and wellness centres (urban public health centre) as well as health and wellness sub-centres.
