STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: 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 per cent 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 by Union Minister of State (Independent
Charge) for Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS
PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic
Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh on Thursday 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.
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, 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.