Over Reliance on Specific Disease Programmes – Are we in the Right Direction?

Public health in India remains an enigma with evernew challenges emerging in control of communicable diseases and burden of non-communicable disease also on the rise. Since independence 70 years ago, India has achieved major milestones in public health, but on many fronts we are still lacking as compared to the progress made in other countries similar to ours in the level of income and population size. China with a population larger than India has better health indicators and has done much better than India in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).¹ As for the achievement of MDG, India ranks the lowest among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries.¹ With the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set for 2030, the path ahead for India is not easy. It is time that we introspect our approach towards public health in India and try to improve the health of the millions who have been bereft of the benefits from the growth story of the country and left impoverished because of health related expenditures.² In an attempt to discuss some major shortfalls in our health planning, this article will deal with the issue of specific disease programmes in improving public health in India. Read More. . .