Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Nov 13: As the population of the young is progressively on the increase and India emerges as one of the youngest countries in the world with more than 65% of its population below the age of 35 years, the major focus of diabetes research during the next two decades will be on prevention and control of diabetes in youth.
This was stated here today by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North-Eastern Region (DONER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh while talking to a group of young medicos who called on him for his views and a formal message on the eve of World Diabetes Day tomorrow.
Dr. Jitendra Singh, who is also a National Professor of diabetes and an internationally renowned Diabetologist, said that from the era of communicable diseases, the Indian subcontinent has entered into an age of non-communicable diseases, including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, heart disease and a host of other metabolic disorders. Even though changing lifestyle, food habits and stress are cited as the common factors for this rapid upsurge in diabetes, one cannot lose sight of some of the misplaced priorities which have further contributed to this epidemic phenomenon.
For example, he said, by social and cultural tradition, the Indian nation does not accord high priority to health issues and even in the Annual General Budget in the past years, the allocation for health and particularly for diseases like diabetes has been very minimal, he added.
Future control and prevention of diabetes will certainly require mass awareness, but at the same time, also require proactive measures by Government and other health agencies. To this extent, he appreciated the Government’s decision to provide free gluco-meters for mass testing of blood sugar even in semi-urban and rural areas.
In addition, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the nation as a whole will have to become conscious of the fact that foundational issues like health are prerequisite for any headway in the overall progress of the nation, particularly a nation like India which is capable of becoming a world power in the next decade or so.
The economic burden occurring as a result of lifelong management of diabetes mellitus is another issue which, if not appropriately addressed, can lead to incapacitating conditions further leading to loss of manpower and working man days, he added.
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