21.
Health Care
Misplaced Priorities
While governments are funding cash and devising plans to prevent a possible flu pandemic, critics say little is being done to tackle the World’s biggest killers such as cancer, diabetes and respiratory and heart disease.
Professor Paul Zimmet, director of the International Diabetes Institute in Australia says, “There has been a preoccupation with AIDS and more recently bird flu, but diabetes has been escalating. It’s a timebomb.”
“In Australia, 170 million dollars (US$123 million) has been committed to tackle a (bird flu) epidemic which may or may not happen, but we have a huge diabetes problem and there may be five million dollars spent annually. It’s completely disproportionate,” he adds.
As the UN marks World Health Day, countries such as India are bracing for a worsening health crisis from chronic diseases that already claim more lives than infectious diseases such as malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 270 million people in Asia will die from chronic disease between 2005 and 2015, mostly poor people in developing countries such as China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia.
Asia has an estimated 8.3 million HIV/AIDS cases, while bird flu has killed 108 people out of 191 cases worldwide since the outbreak began in Asia in late 2003.
Heart diseases, chronic respiratory conditions, cancer and diabetes are the world’s top four killer diseases – more fatal than the much feared ailments like AIDS and influenza A (H1N1), according to UN.
The economic cost of chronic diseases will run into trillions of dollars, experts say. Many Asian governments, however, spend relatively little on public healthcare and a small percentage of that goes towards prevention of lifestyle diseases.
India at present spends 0.65 percent of GDP on health (defense spending almost touches 3 percent) and all other Asian governments devoted far less than 5 per cent of GDP to health,
The World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2010 called on governments across the Asia Pacific region to spend at least 4%-5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on health and put extensive safety-net provisions in place for vulnerable sections of the population.
But no one seems to be listening. India squandered $20 billion on Commonwealth games in 2011 while millions died from under-nutrition and chronic diseases during the same period. Most of the organizers are serving token jail sentences for corruption charges running into billions. So the problem is not exactly lack of resources but it’s their gross mismanagement.
Professor Paul Zimmet, director of the International Diabetes Institute in Australia says, “There has been a preoccupation with AIDS and more recently bird flu, but diabetes has been escalating. It’s a timebomb.”
“In Australia, 170 million dollars (US$123 million) has been committed to tackle a (bird flu) epidemic which may or may not happen, but we have a huge diabetes problem and there may be five million dollars spent annually. It’s completely disproportionate,” he adds.
As the UN marks World Health Day, countries such as India are bracing for a worsening health crisis from chronic diseases that already claim more lives than infectious diseases such as malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 270 million people in Asia will die from chronic disease between 2005 and 2015, mostly poor people in developing countries such as China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia.
Asia has an estimated 8.3 million HIV/AIDS cases, while bird flu has killed 108 people out of 191 cases worldwide since the outbreak began in Asia in late 2003.
Heart diseases, chronic respiratory conditions, cancer and diabetes are the world’s top four killer diseases – more fatal than the much feared ailments like AIDS and influenza A (H1N1), according to UN.
The economic cost of chronic diseases will run into trillions of dollars, experts say. Many Asian governments, however, spend relatively little on public healthcare and a small percentage of that goes towards prevention of lifestyle diseases.
India at present spends 0.65 percent of GDP on health (defense spending almost touches 3 percent) and all other Asian governments devoted far less than 5 per cent of GDP to health,
The World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2010 called on governments across the Asia Pacific region to spend at least 4%-5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on health and put extensive safety-net provisions in place for vulnerable sections of the population.
But no one seems to be listening. India squandered $20 billion on Commonwealth games in 2011 while millions died from under-nutrition and chronic diseases during the same period. Most of the organizers are serving token jail sentences for corruption charges running into billions. So the problem is not exactly lack of resources but it’s their gross mismanagement.
“Though the industrial logic that made feeding cattle to cattle seem like a good idea has been thrown into doubt by mad cow disease, I was surprised to learn it hadn't been discarded. The FDA ban on feeding ruminant protein to ruminants makes an exception for blood products and fat; my steer will probably dine on beef tallow recycled from the very slaughterhouse he's heading to in June.”
~Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals