Efforts to Root out Diabetes

New Delhi, April 27, 2016:As informed by ICMR, earlier, top 3 countries in the world for diabetes prevalence were India, China and USA. But, for the past few years, China has the largest number of diabetes cases in the world. As per International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Diabetes Atlas (7th Edition), China has the largest number of cases of diabetes (109.6 million) followed by India (69.1 million) and United States of America (USA) (29.3 million) in 2015.

While Health is a State subject, the Central Government supplements the efforts of the State Government for improving healthcare. Government of India has launched National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) which is implemented for interventions up to District level under the National Health Mission. NPCDCS has a focus on awareness generation for behavior and life-style changes, screening and early diagnosis of persons with high level of risk factors and their treatment and referral (if required) to higher facilities for appropriate management for Non-communicable Diseases including Diabetes.

The Government of India under National Health Mission has launched Rastriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) in order to improve the overall quality of life of children and provide comprehensive care to all the children in the community. This programme involves screening of children from birth to 18 years of age for four Ds – Defects at birth, Diseases, Deficiencies and Development delays including disabilities.

The Government of India has also launched Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) in 2014, for adolescents in the age group of 10-19 years, which promotes behaviour change in adolescents to prevent NCDs including diabetes.