Tuesday 16 August 2016

Azadi from Diseases New Delhi, August 15, 2016: 15th August should not only be a reminder of independence from the British but a commitment on a yearly basis to eradicate one more disease said Padma Shri Awardee Dr KK Aggarwal – President Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) and Honorary Secretary General IMA. Every year efforts should be made to start a ‘Quit’ India Movement for a particular disease. The International Task Force for Disease Eradication in 1992 identified six "eradicable" or "potentially eradicable" infectious diseases. These are dracunculiasis, poliomyelitis, mumps, rubella, lymphatic filariasis, and cysticercosis. In 2002, measles was added to this list. Of these only guinea worm disease or dracunculiasis has already been eradicated from India. Malaria, yellow fever, and yaws eradication programmes of earlier years were unsuccessful but they contributed greatly to a better understanding of the biological, social, political, and economic complexities of achieving the ultimate goal in disease control. In early 1997, WHO listed leprosy, onchocerciasis (River blindness), and Chaga’s disease as being candidates for elimination" as public health problems within ten years". Its time for us to form an India force and start working on eradicable diseases. Dr Aggarwal further pointed out that an effective cardiovascular control program should be strengthened all over the country as heart attacks are not known to occur in wild animals.

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