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The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss has said that the threat of newer infections such as SARS, Avian influenza, increasing trend of drug resistant infections and non-communicable diseases have made the Government to realize the need for strengthening of surveillance and understanding the epidemiology of these diseases to design an appropriate strategy for combating these problems. While addressing a Symposium on “Public Health: Perspective and Issues” organized by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) on the occasion of its 42nd foundation day celebrations here today, the Minister referred to reports of other emerging zoonotic infections like leptospirosis, being regularly reported from the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala and anthrax from Orissa and said that in view of these, there is an urgent need for strengthening of the entire surveillance machinery so that early warning signals are detected and appropriate preventive and control measures are applied timely to minimize the impact of such outbreaks.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Smt. Panabaka Lakshmi said that the task of protecting and promoting the public’s health is becoming increasingly complex. We need to seriously examine our public health workforce towards ensuring its preparedness to address the many challenges it faces. NICD plays even greater role in preventing the occurrence of disease outbreaks in natural disasters as was demonstrated during Bhuj earthquake; Orissa, Cyclone and more recently in Tsunami affected areas. Under the disease surveillance activity, it is now engaged in developing functional linkages with various states/UTs for early detection of outbreaks and mounting a prompt response. The Minister hoped that in the not very distant future, our disease surveillance system in the country would be second to none in the world.
Director General, Health and Family Welfare, Dr. S.P. Aggarwal and Director General, ICMR, Prof. N.K. Ganguly also addressed on the occasion.
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