Need to pay urgent attention towards preventive aspects of

Union Health Minister J P Nadda today said support of private sector is crucial in designing school curriculum to inculcate healthy lifestyles among children and stressed the need to pay urgent attention towards preventive aspects of non-communicable diseases).
Nadda said that most of the major non-communicable diseases (NCDs) generally labeled as 'lifestyle diseases' are acquired and social behaviour change plays a major role in preventing them.
"The support of the private sector in this area will be crucial, especially in designing curriculum for the children at school so that we can inculcate healthy lifestyle in them in their formative years," an official statement quoting Nadda, who was speaking at FICCI HEAL event said.

"Superior outcomes in healthcare in India will be better achieved with innovations in health practices and products, and I urge private sector to give priority to innovations and best practices," he said.
The Health Minister further said that some formidable challenges still need to be addressed in many states due to lack of sturdy infrastructure and shortage of skilled manpower among other things.
"We should not work in silos. There is urgent need to interact and work together in making a meaningful change," he said.

Highlighting the benefits of the Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment (AMRIT) outlets, the Health Minister said that these clinics have sold drugs worth Rs 28 crores as per the MRP.

However, the costs to the patients through these outlets have only been Rs 9 crores and has thus resulted in saving of Rs 19 crore out of pocket expenditure to the patients.
Noting that the government is making strides in the field of telemedicine, Nadda said the facility with three remote locations - Community Health Centre, Pooh in Kinnour, Himachal Pradesh, Pampa Hospital, Sabrimala in Kerala and Sheshnag base camp on way to Amarnath Shrine has been started.
He also reiterated the government's resolve to strengthen tertiary health care in all its premium institutions by inducting state-of-art technology, training and capacity building of human resource and providing affordable and convenient tertiary health care through various steps.

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The Union Health minister said that there is not only need to re-strategise as newer vulnerabilities continue to emerge, and there is also the need to expand the scope of our services.
He said the government is now treating more than 10 lakh patients with free ARV therapy and announced the attainment of milestone of initiation of treatment of the millionth person with free ARV drugs.
"As promised last year, third line ART is now available free under the ART programme," he said.
Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel said that India has come a long way from the time when HIV was considered to be something dreadful to this day when the disease has been accepted in the society like any other chronic disease for which one has to take life-long treatment.

"This has been possible by joint efforts of dedicated and professional human resource at different levels. India has second largest number of PLHIV on ART with nearly 1 million on ART out of 2.1 million estimated with HIV. Nearly 1.4 million have been detected out of 2.1 million estimated with HIV.
"We have to ensure that we not only provide drugs, we ensure that the stigma goes away, people can live in dignity, they can get social benefits of government and do not lose out on economic front and are not discriminated at work place," she said.
Minister of State for Health Faggan Singh Kulaste stressed the need to work hard to eliminate the infection by 2030 and noted that the task is clearly laid out.

"We need to put our resources and energies in states where we see new infections or more deaths of inadequate responses so that gains made in better performing states do not get diluted in the overall national picture.
"We have to increase pace of our march towards our commitment during "ending AIDS by 2030" Kulaste said.
Health secretary C K Mishra stressed on the need to create new strategies for the new challenges emerging in this sector and said that India has achieved remarkable success in stopping HIV/ AIDS and the model it adopted is being emulated globally.
"This shows how a unified leadership came together. Common thread in the programme is partnership as this task was not possible for a single entity.

"Now we need to align our approaches with the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK), adolescent health programme of the Ministry so that all the adolescents in the country are safe and covered," he said.