Chennai: Governor Banwarilal Purohit said globally 15 million people die prematurely from non communicable diseases (NCDs), with over 85 per cent of these deaths occurring in low and middle income countries. NCDs kill 10 people every second in India, he said.
Inaugurating the fifth Youth Health Mela – 2019, organised by Cancer Institute (WIA) at Valluvar Kottam, he said, cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and diabetes are the main NCDs accounting for a substantial percentage of the mortality rates in India.
“These premature deaths reduce productivity, curtail economic growth and trap populations in poverty. The underlying determinants of these diseases and their shared risk factors clearly show that multisectoral, responses are required to prevent and control them. This requires sustained action in a concerted and well coordinated manner. It has been observed that lifestyle related factors are mainly responsible for these non communicable diseases. Rapid urbanisation has led to an increase in harmful behavioural patterns such as increased consumption of hastily cooked low- nutritive foods, reduced physical activity and increased exposure to alcohol and tobacco,” he said.
He further said most premature NCD deaths are preventable by taking cost-effective action to tackle the main behavioural risk factors namely tobacco use, use of alcohol, physical inactivity and unhealthy diet.
“It is estimated that by just tackling these risk factors, 80 per cent of the premature deaths caused by NCDs can be prevented. Lack of physical activity is the main factor behind diabetes and obesity, cardiac failure and stroke contributes to around 3 lakh deaths every year in India alone. Similarly, another common risk factor causing a high incidence of mortality is tobacco usage. It is the leading cause of death among Indians between 30-69 years of age and is a major health menace which kills or disables individuals in their most productive years,” he added.
The three day Youth Health Mela will consist a Youth Health exhibition where scientific and evidence based information relating to four focus areas are going to be presented in an interactive manner to the public so as to encourage them to change hazardous lifestyle behaviours.
Cancer Institute chairperson Dr V Shanta, assistant director Dr R Swaminathan, head of psycho-oncology Dr V Surendran, HCL Foundation associate manager C Newton Raj and other dignitaries participated at the inaugural session.