To combat 'silent killers', India to conduct survey
India for the first
time is undertaking a survey on lifestyle trends in nine states in an effort to
get data on people suffering from non-communicable diseases like diabetes and
cardio-vascular diseases, and find a solution to combat these silent killers.
India presently has no
figure on non-communicable diseases (NCDs). According to World Health
Organisation (WHO) estimates, by 2030 67% of all deaths in India will be due to
such causes. The Lancet estimates that the loss to national income for India
due to non-communicable diseases mortality for 2006-15 will be $237 billion.
The health ministry has
directed the Registrar General of India (RGI) to undertake the survey.
The RGI has been asked
to collect clinical, biochemical and anthropometric components like blood
pressure, fasting sugar, iodine and iron levels among people in the nine states
of Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha,
Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Assam. These nine states account for around 50% of
the country's population and have the highest number of infant and maternal
mortality rates put together.
"The survey will
be the maiden estimate of parameters like blood pressure, height and weight,
fasting sugar, iodine and iron levels in such a big and diverse sample. Earlier,
the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had done some surveys but the
sample size was very small," an RGI official told IANS.
RGI will start
collecting samples from 1,400 households in 284 districts in the states by the
end of September or early October. The clinical parameters would help get an
estimate of the number of people suffering from lifestyle and nutritional
diseases.
Till now the focus of
the Annual Health Survey (AHS) and National Family Health Survey (NFHS)
conducted by the government has always been on maternal and infant deaths,
malnourishment among children and immunisation.
The health ministry is
presently running a pilot project -- India's National Programme for Prevention
and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) and Stroke
(NPCDCS) -- to screen about 150 million people by 2012.
The programme includes
establishment of clinics at 100 district hospitals and 700 Community Health
Centres (CHCs) for diagnosis and management of non-communicable diseases to
ensure availability of life saving drugs. "The data will help us in
putting together a strategy to deal with the growing problem," said a
health ministry official.
According to the RGI
official: "The work has been outsourced to a private survey agency. A team
of three people, consisting of two health investigators and one health supervisor,
will conduct the survey in each of the 284 districts.
Source: www.dnaindia.com 13.08.2012
Now a blood test to
detect Alzeimer’s
Now Alzheimer’s may be detectable through an easy blood
test. A new study has shown that a blood test is in the offing to detect
Alzheimer’s disease. ”Reliability and failure to replicate initial results have
been the biggest challenge in this field. We demonstrate here that it is
possible to show consistent findings,” says William Hu, assistant professor of
neurology at Emory University School of Medicine, who led the study.
Hu and collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania and
Washington University, St. Louis, measured the levels of 190 proteins in the
blood of 600 study participants at those institutions. They included healthy
volunteers and those who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or mild
cognitive impairment (MCI). MCI, which foreshadows Alzheimer’s, causes a slight
but measurable decline in cognitive abilities, according to an Emory statement.
Neurologists currently diagnose Alzheimer’s disease based
mainly on clinical symptoms. Additional information can come from PET brain
imaging, which tends to be expensive, or analysis of a spinal tap, which can be
painful. “Though a blood test to identify underlying Alzheimer’s disease is not
quite ready for prime time given today’s technology, we now have identified
ways to make sure that a test will be reliable,” Hu said. “In the meantime, the
combination of a clinical exam and cerebrospinal (brain) fluid analysis remains
the best tool for diagnosis in someone with mild memory or cognitive troubles,”
Hu added.
Source: http://health.india.com
13.08.2012
Be noble in every thought and in every deed
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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