Press Trust Of India
Geneva, Jan 19: The probability of Indians dying pre-maturely from non-communicable diseases like cancer and diabetes has marginally increased, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Monday, asking, “India has reached the space age but what about its people.”
The latest global status report on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) conducted by the WHO states that the probability of dying between 30 and 70 from a non-communicable disease in India has increased to 26.2 per cent in 2012 from 26.1 per cent in 2010. The percentage of such deaths in India is worse than almost the whole of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The four main NCDs are cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases. The report is the second in a triennial series tracking worldwide progress in prevention and control of NCDs.
Out of the world’s 56 million deaths, NCDs were responsible for 68 per cent — 38 million deaths in 2012 — making it the leading cause of death globally, it said.
More than 40 per cent of them (16 million) were premature deaths under the age of 70. Almost three quarters of all NCD deaths (28 million), and the majority of premature deaths (82 per cent), occur in low-and middle-income countries, the report pointed out.
Among the P5 countries — China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US in 2012 only the Russian Federation has a higher probability of death caused by NCDs than India with a 29.2 per cent chance of a person dying a premature death from it, even though it shows a decrease from 2010. Switzerland fares the best with a 9.2 per cent chance and Tajikistan the worse with a whopping 40.8 per cent chance of a premature NCD death.
