India grappling with shortage of health workforce: Nadda

New Delhi, Sept 5 (PTI) India is "grappling" with shortageof health workforce while high rates of tobacco use iscontributing to the rise in non-communicable diseases, HealthMinister J P Nadda today said while asserting that the countryis "alive" to these challenges and committed to addressingthem. "India’s large and diverse population is a formidablechallenge. We know that many countries of this regionincluding India, as well as of the world, are grappling withchallenge of shortage of health workforce. "India is at the crossroads of rising costs of healthcareand growing expectations of the people. We are facing a risein non-communicable diseases. In India, high rates of tobaccouse and hypertension prevalence in adults are risk factorscontributing to this growing problem," he said. Nadda was making an intervention address at the 69thsession of the WHO South East Asia Regional Committee beingheld at Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo. To arrest the growing epidemic of non-communicablediseases that kill 8.5 million people annually in WHOSouth-East Asia Region, member countries, including Indiatoday adopted the ‘Colombo declaration’ which calls forstrengthening delivery of services for these diseases at theprimary healthcare level. Nadda said that improvements made during the MDG period(1990-2015) demonstrate that with sound strategies andtargeted interventions, significant progress can be made andIndia is poised to carry forward this momentum into the 2030Agenda for Sustainable Development. "We are alive to these health challenges and remaincommitted to addressing them," he said. He said that India’s life expectancy at birth has nearlydoubled since Independence while the under-five mortality rateand maternal mortality ratio has declined by over 60 per centsince 1990. He maintained that the new HIV infection among adultpopulation has declined by 57 per cent while "substantial"reductions in the incidence of and mortality from majorinfectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria, pneumoniaand diarrhoeal diseases have also been achieved. Nadda noted that in 2015 India celebrated five years sincethe last case of wild polio was reported in the country whileWHO confirmed India’s claim of yaws-free status in 2016. Yawsis a tropical infection of the skin, bones and joints. "WHO has validated the elimination of maternal andneonatal tetanus in 2015 from India. Cases of kala-azardeclined by 11 per cent in 2015 from 2014, and 78 per centsince 2006. Leprosy has been eliminated in 84 per cent of thedistricts," he said. PTI TDSSC